Best for
SaaS apps, admin panels, and dashboards that need a persistent left-nav shell from day one
Stack
A ready-made Sidebar Layout UI you can fork, run, and customize with the prompt pack below.
What's actually inside
The honest engineer's breakdown — what the Sidebar Layouttemplate does, how it's wired, and where it's opinionated.
The Sidebar Layout template is a pure UI shell — there is no authentication, no database, and no business logic baked in. What you get is a well-structured collapsible sidebar (CollapsibleSidebar) with icon + label NavItems, a SectionDivider for grouping links, and an active-item highlight that marks the current route. The TopBar holds a breadcrumb or page title slot on the left and a user menu area on the right — both are empty placeholders waiting for your content.
The sidebar uses React useState for collapse state, which is the right call for simplicity but comes with a trade-off: the state resets on every page refresh. If your users expect the sidebar to remember whether it was open or closed, you will need to persist that preference (either to localStorage or a database). The MobileDrawer, powered by shadcn/ui Sheet, adapts the sidebar to an off-canvas overlay on small screens — a solid foundation, though the 'closed-after-navigation' bug is a known gotcha you should patch right away.
The template is deliberate about what it excludes: no routing configuration, no real nav links, no protected pages. That makes it fast to fork and immediately repurpose, but you should go in knowing you are getting a layout scaffold, not a working multi-page app. The MainContent area correctly resizes as the sidebar collapses, and shadcn/ui Separator handles nav group dividers cleanly.
Key UI components
CollapsibleSidebarIcon + label nav with collapse/expand toggle and active-item highlight
TopBar / HeaderBreadcrumb or page title slot on left, user menu area on right
MainContentScrollable content area that resizes when the sidebar collapses
NavItemReusable link component with icon slot and optional badge
SectionDividerVisual grouping of nav sections such as Main and Settings
MobileDrawerSidebar adapted as off-canvas Sheet on small screens
Libraries it leans on
shadcn/ui SheetPowers the MobileDrawer off-canvas overlay on mobile viewports
shadcn/ui SeparatorUsed for nav group dividers inside SectionDivider
React useState/useContextManages sidebar collapse state and active nav item across components
Fork it and get it running
Forking the Sidebar Layout template takes about 5 minutes. You will end up with a working collapsible sidebar deployed to a live Vercel URL — no account upgrades required.
Open the template and click Fork
Go to https://v0.dev/chat/community/ybLyeN1sesS. In the top-right area of the community page you will see a 'Fork' button — click it to copy the template into your own V0 project. V0 will spin up the project in the editor within a few seconds. You do not need to sign in with anything other than your V0 account.
Tip: If the Fork button is not visible, make sure you are logged in to v0.dev first.
You should see: The template opens in the V0 editor with the sidebar visible in the Preview tab.
Verify interactive states in Preview
In the V0 editor, click the Preview tab (center or right panel). Click the collapse/expand toggle on the CollapsibleSidebar and confirm the MainContent area resizes. On a narrow preview width, confirm the MobileDrawer opens as a Sheet overlay. These are the two key interactive states — if either is broken, use the 'Fix with v0' button before continuing.
You should see: CollapsibleSidebar collapses and expands; MobileDrawer opens and closes on narrow widths.
Add environment variables (optional)
Click the 'Vars' panel in the left sidebar of the V0 editor. This is where you add environment variables like NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_NAME. The sidebar layout template itself renders without any env vars, so this step is only needed if you are wiring in an external service right away. You can skip it and add vars later.
You should see: Vars panel opens; you can add key-value pairs that will be available to the app at build time.
Publish to Vercel
Click the Share icon (top-right area of the V0 editor), then open the Publish tab. Click 'Publish to Production'. V0 will build and deploy your fork to a vercel.app URL in 30–60 seconds. Copy the URL and open it in a new browser tab to confirm the live sidebar works.
Tip: If the build fails, click the error in the Publish tab and use 'Fix with v0' to let the AI resolve it.
You should see: A live vercel.app URL loads the sidebar layout in your browser.
Connect GitHub for code access
In the V0 editor left panel, click the Git panel icon. Connect your GitHub account via OAuth if you have not already, then click 'Connect project' and choose an organization and repository name. V0 will push the code to a branch named v0/main-{hash}. From there you can open the code in Cursor or VS Code and add page content to MainContent, update NavItem labels, or add routing.
Tip: Never rename or delete the connected GitHub repo — this breaks the V0 sync.
You should see: The code appears in your GitHub repo on a v0/main branch you can pull locally.
Add a custom domain
Open the Vercel Dashboard at vercel.com, navigate to your project, then go to Settings → Domains. Type in your domain name and follow the DNS instructions Vercel provides (usually a CNAME record for subdomains or an A record for apex domains). SSL is provisioned automatically. After the DNS propagates (minutes to hours depending on your registrar), your sidebar shell is live on your domain.
You should see: Your sidebar layout template is accessible at your custom domain with HTTPS.
The prompt pack
Copy-paste these straight into v0's chat to customize the Sidebar Layouttemplate. Each one names this template's own components — no generic filler.
Replace nav items with your app sections
Replaces placeholder nav links with your app's real sections and icons, organized into logical SectionDivider groups.
Replace the CollapsibleSidebar nav items with the following sections: Dashboard, Projects, Team, Settings, Billing. Keep the active-item highlight and icon slots — just update the labels and hrefs. Use lucide-react icons: LayoutDashboard for Dashboard, FolderOpen for Projects, Users for Team, Settings for Settings, CreditCard for Billing. Place Settings and Billing in a separate SectionDivider group labeled 'Account'.
Add dark mode toggle to TopBar
Adds a one-click theme toggle to the TopBar that persists between sessions using next-themes.
Add a dark/light mode toggle button to the TopBar on the right side, next to the user menu area placeholder. Use the shadcn/ui theme system with class-based dark mode. Install next-themes if it is not already present, wrap the layout in ThemeProvider, and render a toggle icon button (Moon / Sun from lucide-react) that calls setTheme(). Persist the user's choice in localStorage using next-themes built-in storage.
Add notification badge to NavItems
Extends NavItem with a notification count badge, useful for unread items or pending tasks.
Add an optional numeric badge to the NavItem component. Accept a count prop (number | undefined) on NavItem. When count is greater than 0, render a red Badge from shadcn/ui overlapping the top-right corner of the icon slot. Add the badge to the 'Projects' NavItem with a placeholder value of 3 and the 'Team' NavItem with a placeholder value of 12. Hide the badge entirely when count is undefined or 0.
Wire TopBar user menu to Clerk auth
Wires real authentication to the TopBar user area and protects routes behind Clerk sign-in.
Connect the TopBar user menu area to Clerk authentication. Install @clerk/nextjs and wrap the RootLayout in ClerkProvider using your NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY and CLERK_SECRET_KEY env vars (add them in the Vars panel). Replace the static avatar placeholder in the TopBar with <UserButton afterSignOutUrl='/' /> from @clerk/nextjs. Add middleware.ts at the project root that protects all routes except the sign-in page using Clerk's clerkMiddleware.
Add role-based nav visibility
Makes certain sidebar sections invisible to non-admin users by fetching their role from Supabase.
Add role-based visibility to the CollapsibleSidebar nav items. Read a USER_ROLE value from Clerk's useUser() hook (expected values: 'admin' or 'member'). When the role is 'member', hide the 'Billing' and 'Team' NavItem groups entirely by conditionally rendering them based on role. Fetch the canonical role from a Supabase 'profiles' table (columns: user_id TEXT, role TEXT) using the Clerk user ID as the foreign key. Use createClient from @supabase/ssr with the user's session for the lookup.
Persist sidebar collapse state to Supabase
Stores each user's sidebar state in Supabase so it persists across sessions and devices.
Save the CollapsibleSidebar collapsed/expanded preference per user in Supabase. Create a Supabase table 'user_preferences' with columns: user_id TEXT PRIMARY KEY, sidebar_collapsed BOOLEAN DEFAULT false. On each toggle event, call a Next.js Server Action that upserts the row using the current Clerk user ID. On initial page render, fetch the preference in a Server Component and pass it as a defaultCollapsed prop to CollapsibleSidebar. Add RLS: authenticated users can only read and write their own row (user_id = auth.uid()).
Gotchas when you extend it
The failures people actually hit when they push this template past its defaults — and the exact fix for each.
ReferenceError: localStorage is not definedWhy: The sidebar collapse state is read from localStorage during SSR in Next.js, but localStorage does not exist on the server. This happens if the localStorage.getItem call is placed at module scope or outside a useEffect.
Fix: Wrap all localStorage reads in a useEffect with an empty dependency array. Initialize the collapsed state to false as the useState default, then sync from localStorage inside the effect.
The CollapsibleSidebar reads localStorage during render, causing SSR errors. Move the localStorage.getItem call inside a useEffect with an empty dependency array and use useState(false) as the initial value.
Mobile drawer doesn't close when navigating to a new routeWhy: The shadcn/ui Sheet state is stored in local component state and does not react to Next.js router events. Clicking a NavItem changes the URL but leaves the Sheet open.
Fix: Add a usePathname() listener from next/navigation and call setOpen(false) inside a useEffect that runs whenever pathname changes.
The MobileDrawer stays open after clicking a nav item. Add usePathname() from next/navigation and call setOpen(false) in a useEffect when pathname changes.
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve '@/components/ui/sheet'Why: shadcn/ui components must be installed individually. The Sheet component that powers MobileDrawer may not exist in the project yet if V0 missed it during the fork.
Fix: Use the 'Fix with v0' button on the build error, or instruct V0 to install the Sheet component. It will run the equivalent of npx shadcn add sheet and set up the import correctly.
The Sheet component is missing. Install the shadcn/ui Sheet component and ensure it is imported correctly from '@/components/ui/sheet' in the MobileDrawer.
Active nav item highlight doesn't update when navigatingWhy: The active state check uses a hardcoded string comparison instead of reading the current URL. After navigation, the highlighted NavItem stays on the one that was clicked, not the one matching the current route.
Fix: Refactor NavItem to import usePathname() from next/navigation and compare the current pathname to the href prop. Mark the NavItem as a Client Component with 'use client' at the top.
The active nav item doesn't update on navigation. Refactor NavItem to call usePathname() from next/navigation and compare the current path to the href prop to determine active state.
Template vs. custom — the honest call
A forked template gets you far, fast. Here's where it holds up, and where you'll outgrow it.
The template is enough when
- You are scaffolding a new SaaS MVP and need a working nav shell today
- You want a consistent layout across 5–20 internal pages without hand-coding a sidebar
- Non-technical team members need to drop page content into MainContent without touching the nav structure
- You want a clean base that pairs with Clerk or NextAuth — auth is not baked in so nothing conflicts
Go custom when
- Your nav is dynamic — loaded from a database or driven by user permissions that change at runtime
- You need a mega-menu, nested sub-nav, or icon-only collapsed rail that the template's flat NavItem structure does not support
- You are migrating an existing Next.js app — importing a sidebar shell into established file-based routing is messier than writing one targeted to your structure
RapidDev extends V0 sidebar prototypes into production-grade shells — adding auth-gated routes, DB-backed preferences, and design-system alignment.
Frequently asked questions
Is this sidebar layout template free to use?
Yes. V0 community templates are free to fork and use in personal and commercial projects. You need a free V0 account to fork.
Can I use this template for a commercial SaaS product?
Yes. V0 community templates have no commercial-use restrictions. You own the forked code and can ship it as part of any product.
Why does my fork break in the V0 preview but work after deploying?
V0 runs previews in an esm.sh sandbox that has limitations with certain packages. SSR-related errors (like the localStorage issue) may also show as red banners in preview but resolve correctly after a real Vercel deploy. Always verify functionality on the deployed URL before concluding something is broken.
Does the sidebar template include authentication?
No. The template is a pure UI shell — it has a TopBar user menu area placeholder but no auth logic. You add Clerk, NextAuth, or Supabase Auth separately using the prompt pack prompts in this guide.
How do I add my own pages behind the sidebar?
Create new page files in the app/ directory using Next.js App Router conventions (e.g. app/dashboard/page.tsx). Import and render them inside the MainContent component. The sidebar NavItems are independent — update their hrefs to match your new routes.
The sidebar collapse state resets on every page load — how do I persist it?
The template stores collapse state in React useState, which resets on refresh. Paste the 'Persist sidebar collapse state to Supabase' prompt from the prompt pack above into the V0 chat to add database-backed persistence. For a localStorage-only approach, use the 'fix_prompt' from the localStorage gotcha.
Can RapidDev help me turn this sidebar template into a full product?
Yes. RapidDev builds on V0 prototypes and adds auth-gated routes, database schemas, CI/CD pipelines, and production-ready design systems. You can learn more at rapidevelopers.com.
Does the template work on mobile?
The MobileDrawer adapts the sidebar to a Sheet overlay on small screens. The implementation is solid for basic use, but you should test your specific content in the Preview tab at a narrow width and verify the drawer closes after navigation (see the gotcha above).
Outgrowing the template?
RapidDev turns v0 prototypes into production apps — real auth, database, and payments — at $13K–$25K.
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