Breadcrumb

Definition

A breadcrumb is a horizontal trail of links from the current page back toward the site root. Each segment represents a level in the hierarchy — home, category, subcategory, and finally the current page, which is shown as plain text rather than a link.

The pattern is wayfinding: it answers “where am I?” and offers one-click jumps to ancestor pages. It does not replace primary navigation; it supplements it on deep or nested routes.

Also known as

People also call this a breadcrumb trail, breadcrumb navigation, or hierarchy path.

Component Anatomy

When to use it

Use a breadcrumb when users land on nested pages and may need to climb back up the tree:

• Docs and reference sites — section → subsection → article
• E-commerce — department → category → product
• Settings or admin — org → workspace → resource
• Deep app routes — dashboards with several levels of drill-down
• SEO and sharing — reinforces page hierarchy in the UI (and in structured data when mirrored in markup)

Avoid a breadcrumb when the site is flat (only one or two levels — top nav is enough), when users rarely arrive mid-hierarchy (e.g. everything is reached from a single hub), or when primary navigation already shows location clearly (tabs, sidebar with active state). Do not use breadcrumbs as the only way to move between major sections.

Full trail shows every ancestor (good for shallow trees). Collapsed trail hides middle segments with an ellipsis (good for deep paths). The last segment is always the current page and should match the page title when possible.