> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://invoca-5bd45748-mintlify-17ed87db.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# SideNav
> No standalone side navigation ships in Titan core today — this page documents what exists instead, and why the gap matters.
**No standalone `SideNav` component ships in Titan core.** This is not an unwritten stub in the
usual sense — the research is done, and the finding is the absence itself. Checked against the
`core` package's component directory, its export barrels, its templates directory, and the
Storybook index: nothing there implements a vertical list of page-level navigation destinations.
This page's `tag` is `Draft` rather than `Stable` for that reason — there is no shipped,
decided component to certify.
## What it is
A side nav (also called a left nav, nav rail, or primary navigation) is a vertical list of
destinations, usually anchored to one edge of the screen, for moving between different subjects
or records rather than between sections of one page. That job description comes from how Titan's
own docs already talk about it by contrast —
[Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs#choose-something-else-when) names
"side nav" as the alternative when you need to move between different subjects, and
[Views overview](/invoca-design-system/views/overview) notes that the design library's page
template includes "a left nav rail of labelled icons" as chrome outside the page frame. Nothing
in `core` currently builds that.
## Live example
None. No Storybook story exists for anything named `SideNav` — verified against the live
Storybook index.
## Exports
Nothing in `@invoca/titan-core` implements this concept. What exists elsewhere in the same
repository, none of it a distributable design-system export:
| Where | What | Status |
| --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `Tabs orientation="vertical"` | `core`'s own `Tabs`, documented as "the rail" | Tokened and themed, but whether it *is* page-level navigation or an in-page tab presentation is unconfirmed — [TITAN-GAP-29](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-29) |
| `SideNav` in `@invoca/titan-legacy-web` | A `reactstrap` (Bootstrap) `Nav`, `vertical` | No Titan tokens, and no theming from the underlying framework either. The package itself is described in its own `package.json` as "Legacy Invoca Web components (deprecated)". |
| `primary-navigation` application | `PrimaryNavigation`, `PrimaryNavItem`, `PrimaryNavSubMenu` in `applications/react/legacy/primary-navigation` | A real, actively deployed left nav (its changelog shows a production deploy as recently as August 2026) — but it is a bespoke, GraphQL-driven per-app micro-frontend, not an importable component. It is shipped as its own deployed unit, not a package another app installs. |
**Three implementations of the same concept exist, and none is confirmed as the system's
answer.** This is the same pattern documented for pagination — see
[TITAN-GAP-27](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-27) — playing out
again for side navigation. See [Known issues](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/side-nav/open-issues).
## Vocabulary
| Term | Also called | The system uses | In code |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **SideNav** | Left nav, nav rail, primary navigation, sidebar | **`SideNav`** — the term a reader searches for | Nothing — no export exists under this or any other name |
| The rail | Vertical tabs, nav rail | **`rail`** | `Tabs orientation="vertical"`, per [Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs#vocabulary) |
**"SideNav" and "the rail" are not confirmed to be the same thing.** The rail is a real, themed
export; "SideNav" names a region the design library's page template draws and nothing in `core`
fills. Use "the rail" only when you mean `Tabs orientation="vertical"` specifically, and "SideNav"
only when you mean the unfilled region — conflating them states an answer to
[TITAN-GAP-29](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-29) that hasn't been
decided.
## Choose SideNav when
There is no shipped `SideNav` to choose. If the underlying need is "move between different
subjects or records" (as opposed to sections of one page, which is [Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs)),
that need is real and named elsewhere in this documentation — it just has no confirmed component
to satisfy it yet. See Composition below for what is actually available.
## Choose something else when
| If you need to… | Use | Why |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Show sections of the same page's subject | [Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs), horizontal orientation | Peers of one subject, not separate subjects — see Tabs' own constraint on this. |
| Build global, app-wide navigation for an entire Invoca product | The existing `primary-navigation` application | It is already built and deployed. A second, independent implementation compounds the exact cost [TITAN-GAP-27](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-27) and [TITAN-GAP-31](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-31) describe for pagination and skeletons — duplicated, undecided infrastructure. |
| Render a tokened, themed vertical list of rows inside a single Titan app | `Tabs orientation="vertical"` (the rail) | It is the only vertical-list building block in `core` with real dimensions, states, and tokens — with the explicit caveat that what it is *for* is unconfirmed. See [Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs#variants-sizes-and-states). |
## Anatomy
Nothing to document — no component exists. If a vertical list of rows is the actual need, see
the rail's own anatomy on [Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs#anatomy),
`TabIconLabel` for an icon-plus-label row, and `TabMenu` for a row with its own overflow menu.
## Variants, sizes, and states
Nothing to document.
## Edge and failure states
Nothing to document — there is no shipped behavior to describe failing.
## Tokens
Nothing to document under this concept. The rail's own three component tokens —
`tabs-vertical-min-width`, `tabs-icon-gap`, `tabs-indented-font-size` — are documented on
[Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs#tokens), not duplicated here, since they
belong to that export.
## Composition
**The design library's own page template names this region and explicitly puts it out of this
documentation's scope.** [Views overview](/invoca-design-system/views/overview) records that the
template draws site-level chrome as two regions outside the page frame — "a site header carrying
the logo, the account selector, global search and the account menu, and a left nav rail of
labelled icons" — and states plainly that both are "deliberately out of scope" for the page-frame
documentation. That scoped-out left nav rail is exactly what a reader searching for "SideNav"
is looking for, and nothing in `core` fills it with a real, distributable component today.
The rail (`Tabs orientation="vertical"`) is themed and real, but nothing states whether it *is*
that region's implementation or a different thing that merely looks similar —
[TITAN-GAP-29](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-29) is the open
question this page defers to.
## Content
Nothing to document.
## Accessibility
Nothing in Titan to verify. For reference only — not a statement about any Titan implementation,
since none exists to check — the [WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices' navigation pattern](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/)
generally expects a `nav` landmark with a descriptive accessible name and `aria-current="page"`
on the active destination. Treat this as external, general guidance to apply if and when a real
component is built, not as a Titan rule.
## Constraints
| ID | Constraint | Rationale |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **TITAN-SNAV-01** | Before building a new page-level side navigation for a single application, check [TITAN-GAP-29](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-29) and this page. Do not build a fourth independent implementation. | Three already exist independently — the rail, the deprecated `legacy-web` `SideNav`, and the bespoke `primary-navigation` application. A fourth compounds the exact duplicated-infrastructure cost already recorded for pagination ([TITAN-GAP-27](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-27)) and skeletons ([TITAN-GAP-31](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-31)). |
## Known issues
Divergences, open decisions, and undocumented gaps for SideNav.
## Why it works this way
**It doesn't yet, and this page says so rather than inventing an answer.** The nearest thing to a
decision is [TITAN-GAP-29](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-29), which
already asks whether the tab bar's vertical orientation is the system's side navigation or a
different thing entirely. Until that question is answered, documenting a `SideNav` component as
if it existed would tell a reader something false with total confidence — which is a worse
outcome than a page that plainly states the gap.
## Status
| | |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Package** | No package exports this concept under this name |
| **Nearest tokened building block** | `Tabs orientation="vertical"`, in `@invoca/titan-core` version `3.6.3` |
| **Deprecated alternative** | `SideNav` in `@invoca/titan-legacy-web`, version `368.0.27` |
| **Production alternative (not a distributable component)** | `primary-navigation` application, most recently deployed August 2026 per its own changelog |
## Related
* [Tabs](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/tabs) — the vertical rail, and the open question of what it is for
* [Views overview](/invoca-design-system/views/overview) — the page frame, and the site-level chrome it explicitly scopes out
* [TopNav](/invoca-design-system/components/navigation/top-nav) — the sibling question for the top of the screen
* [TITAN-GAP-29](/invoca-design-system/foundations/open-decisions#titan-gap-29) — the open decision this whole page defers to