Shadcn Collapsible: Expandable Panels for React Interfaces
The shadcn collapsible component expands and collapses a panel of content behind a trigger, giving you progressive disclosure with correct accessibility semantics out of the box. As a react collapsible component it pairs a headless primitive with Tailwind CSS styling, so the open and close behavior is handled for you while the visuals stay fully in your control.
On this page you will find eight collapsible examples ready to copy and paste, including a file tree, a collapsible card, a form section, a variant that hosts a dropdown menu, an accordion style stack, and a collapsible code block. All of them are typed TypeScript components that work in Next.js and any modern React setup.
What is included
- Core toggle: A trigger and content pair with smooth expand and collapse behavior and proper aria attributes.
- File tree: Nested collapsibles that model folders and files, the foundation of any explorer sidebar.
- Card and form sections: Collapsible regions inside cards and forms for advanced options that stay hidden until needed.
- With dropdown menu: A panel header that combines the expand control with a contextual actions menu.
- Accordion pattern: Stacked collapsibles that mimic accordion behavior when you want independent open states.
- Code block: A collapsed code snippet that expands on demand, useful for docs and log viewers.
Implementation tips
- Control state when needed: Use the open and onOpenChange props to sync a collapsible with URL params or a store, and defaultOpen for simple cases.
- Animate with data attributes: Target data-state open and closed in CSS to animate height or opacity without extra JavaScript.
- Rotate the chevron: A simple transition on the trigger icon communicates state instantly and costs one Tailwind class.
- Recurse for trees: For file trees, render a collapsible per folder from recursive data instead of hardcoding levels.
- Do not hide critical content: Keep validation errors and required fields visible. Collapse only optional or secondary information.
Where it fits in a dashboard
Collapsibles carry a lot of weight in admin interfaces. Sidebar navigation groups expand to reveal sub-pages, filter panels collapse to reclaim table space, and long settings forms fold advanced sections away so the default view stays approachable.
The file tree variant deserves special mention. It is the standard pattern for asset browsers, documentation navigation, and any hierarchy a user needs to explore, and because each folder is its own collapsible the open state can be persisted per node.
Related components and patterns
If you need several panels where opening one closes the others, the Accordion component implements that single-open behavior directly. The variant on this page that embeds a Dropdown Menu shows how disclosure and contextual actions share a header, and collapsible sections commonly live inside a Card.
For hiding content at page scale rather than inline, compare the Sheet and Drawer patterns, which move secondary content off-canvas instead of folding it in place.
Library support
The component follows the API documented in the shadcn/ui Collapsible docs and is powered by the Radix UI Collapsible primitive, which manages state, keyboard interaction, and aria-expanded wiring.
If your project standardizes on Base UI instead, the Base UI Collapsible offers an equivalent primitive with a similar render-prop friendly API, and the Tailwind CSS styling from these examples transfers with minor prop adjustments.