GC Design System Components
Home Start to use Page templates overview Basic page Components overview Breadcrumbs Button Card Checkboxes Container Date input Date modified Details Error message Error summary Fieldset File uploader Footer Grid Header Heading Icon Input Language toggle Link Notice Pagination Radios Screenreader-only Search Select Side navigation Signature Stepper Text Textarea Theme and topic menu Top navigation CSS shortcuts overview Reset styles Responsive layout State Box sizing Container sizing Display Overflow Position Visibility Font Font family Font size Font style Font weight Line height Link colour Link size Link text decoration List style Text align Text colour Text overflow Text transform Word break Margin Padding Align content Align items Align self Flex Flex direction Flex grow Flex shrink Flex wrap Gap Grid columns Grid rows Justify content Justify items Justify self Order Place content Place items Place self Background colour Border colour Border radius Border style Border width Icon names Icon size Image Cursor Pointer events Transition Styles overview Design tokens Colour tokens Spacing tokens Typography tokens Contact us Get involved Find a demo

Breadcrumbs
<gcds-breadcrumbs>

Also called: breadcrumb trail.

Breadcrumbs is a path to the current page from each preceding level of the site's hierarchy.

  • Required on Canada.ca

Breadcrumbs component preview

Build a breadcrumbs component

Use breadcrumbs to indicate the location of the current page in relation to its parents in the site structure.

Coding and accessibility for breadcrumbs

  • Maintain the Canada.ca link as the default first breadcrumbs link for most websites and pages.
  • Opt to replace the Canada.ca link with the homepage link on transactional pages and stand alone websites or products. To remove the Canada.ca link at the head of the breadcrumbs, set the hide-canada-link attribute to true.

Tip: For a process that does not have a traditional landing page, link to the starting page of the process.

Place breadcrumbs before the <main> element

Place breadcrumbs at the top of a page, before the <main> element. This way a skip-to-content link can work to let a person skip all navigation links, including breadcrumbs.

Add a new breadcrumbs link to the breadcrumbs component by using the <gcds-breadcrumbs-item> component. The link can be added through the href property.

Get your code

Generate an instance of the component you need by selecting its code properties.

  1. Explore by choosing different code values to generate the instance you want.

  2. Get the code and pull it into your environment.

  3. Add any copy you need to the component (like text for a label).

Note: The code builder uses English for all code elements, which follows standard practice.

Help us improve

Have questions or a request? Give feedback on our contact form.

Something's wrong? Raise it through GitHub with an account. You'll have access to the team's direct responses, progress made on your issue, and issues raised by others.

Give feedback Report an issue on GitHub
2025-04-02