Best for
Founders who want Vercel's signature animated underline-indicator tabs for their dashboard or settings page
Stack
A ready-made Vercel-Style Tabs UI you can fork, run, and customize with the prompt pack below.
What's actually inside
The honest engineer's breakdown — what the Vercel-Style Tabstemplate does, how it's wired, and where it's opinionated.
The Vercel-Style Tabs template is built around one Framer Motion technique: a motion.div with layoutId='underline' that acts as the ActiveIndicator. When the user clicks a different tab, Framer Motion's shared layout animation moves the indicator from the old tab position to the new one with a smooth slide — no CSS transitions, no manual position calculation. This is exactly how Vercel's own dashboard tab strips work, and it's the detail that makes the component look polished rather than generic.
The TabsContainer manages active tab state with useState and handles keyboard navigation. Each TabButton has onClick → setActive and aria-selected for basic accessibility. TabPanels conditionally render the active panel content, and AnimatePresence wraps the panel area for a fade transition when switching between panels. All tab and panel data lives in a single array, making it easy to add or rename tabs without touching the animation logic.
Honest caveats: without URL sync, a page refresh resets to the first tab — users in a multi-section settings page lose their position. This is covered in the prompt pack. The ActiveIndicator also has a known re-mount issue: if the TabsContainer unmounts entirely during Next.js navigation (e.g., placed in a page file that remounts on every route), the layoutId animation loses its memory and the indicator jumps instead of slides on the next visit. Placing the TabsContainer in a persistent layout component avoids this.
Key UI components
TabsContainerOuter wrapper managing active tab state (useState), keyboard navigation, and the tab strip layout
TabButtonIndividual tab label button with onClick → setActive and aria-selected for accessibility
ActiveIndicatorA motion.div with layoutId='underline' that slides between tab positions using Framer Motion shared layout animation — the Vercel-style effect
TabPanelsConditional rendering of panel content keyed to the active tab, wrapped in AnimatePresence for fade transition
TabPanelIndividual content area with motion.div fade-in (opacity 0 → 1) on activation
Libraries it leans on
Framer MotionlayoutId shared layout animation for the ActiveIndicator slide, AnimatePresence for TabPanel fade transitions
shadcn/uiTypography primitives used inside TabPanel content areas
Tailwind CSSTab strip layout, indicator line styling, and responsive breakpoints
Fork it and get it running
Forking takes five minutes. The main customization tasks are replacing the tab labels and panel content — the animation requires no changes.
Open the community page and fork
Go to https://v0.dev/chat/community/BT27p0aGPsa in your browser. Click Fork in the top-right corner. V0 clones the project into your account and opens the editor with the Vercel Sandbox preview pane on the right.
Tip: You need a free v0.dev account to fork. Forking does not consume any credits.
You should see: V0 editor opens with the Vercel-Style Tabs project. The preview shows a tab strip with the ActiveIndicator visible on the first tab.
Verify the ActiveIndicator animation in preview
In the Vercel Sandbox preview pane, click between the tabs and watch the ActiveIndicator underline slide smoothly from one tab to the next using Framer Motion's layoutId animation. Also verify that the TabPanel content fades in via AnimatePresence when the active tab changes. This confirms both animations are working before you make any edits.
You should see: The underline indicator slides smoothly between tabs. The panel content fades in on each tab switch.
Replace tab labels and panel content
In the Code tab, find the tabs data array — an array of objects with a label and panel content. Replace the placeholder labels with your own: for example, ['Overview', 'Usage', 'Settings'] for a settings page, or ['General', 'Security', 'Billing'] for account settings. Update each TabPanel content area with your real content or placeholder divs. This is a direct code edit, no credits needed.
You should see: The preview shows your app's real tab labels and the indicator slides between them correctly.
Adjust the indicator color with Design Mode
Press Option+D (Mac) or Alt+D (Windows) to open Design Mode. Click the ActiveIndicator element (the underline below the active tab) and change its border-color or background-color to your brand color using Tailwind classes. Design Mode adjustments are free — no credits consumed. Common choices: border-violet-500 for purple, border-blue-500 for blue.
You should see: The ActiveIndicator now uses your brand color and the slide animation still works correctly.
Publish to production and connect GitHub
Click Share in the top-right, open the Publish tab, and click 'Publish to Production'. V0 deploys in 30–60 seconds. Then open the Git panel in V0's sidebar, click Connect GitHub, choose a repository, and V0 auto-creates a branch (v0/main-abc123) with a pull request. Merge the PR to bring the component into your codebase.
You should see: A live Vercel URL shows the tabs working. The component code is in your GitHub repo via a merged PR.
The prompt pack
Copy-paste these straight into v0's chat to customize the Vercel-Style Tabstemplate. Each one names this template's own components — no generic filler.
Replace tab labels and content for a settings page
Swaps tab labels and panel placeholders to match a settings page structure without touching any animation code.
Update the TabsContainer to have three tabs: 'General', 'Security', and 'Billing'. Replace each TabPanel content area with placeholder <div> sections containing an h2 heading and a short description paragraph for each settings category. Keep the Framer Motion ActiveIndicator layoutId='underline' animation and the AnimatePresence TabPanel fade transition completely unchanged.
Add a notification badge count to the Billing tab
Adds a red notification badge count pill to a specific TabButton without breaking the ActiveIndicator layoutId animation.
Add a notification badge to the 'Billing' TabButton label. The badge should render as a small rounded pill with bg-red-500 text-white text-xs px-1.5, positioned inline to the right of the tab label text. Add a badgeCount prop to TabButton — render the badge element only when badgeCount > 0. For now, hardcode badgeCount={3} on the Billing TabButton. The ActiveIndicator animation should still slide to the Billing tab correctly when it's selected.Sync the active tab to the URL with Next.js searchParams
Binds active tab state to a URL ?tab= searchParam so tabs are shareable, bookmarkable, and browser-back-button navigable.
Connect the active tab state to the URL search parameter ?tab=general so that direct links work and the browser back button navigates between tabs. Use useSearchParams() from next/navigation to read the current tab value on mount, and useRouter().replace() to update the URL on each tab click. Default to the first tab (index 0 or label 'general') if no ?tab= parameter is present. Keep the Framer Motion ActiveIndicator animation unchanged — the layoutId slide should still work when the URL-driven tab changes.
Load TabPanel content from Supabase on tab activation
Lazily fetches Supabase data only when the Usage tab becomes active, with a Skeleton loader and a results table in the TabPanel.
Convert the 'Usage' TabPanel to load data from Supabase when it becomes the active tab. When activeTab === 'usage', trigger a useEffect that fetches from supabase.from('usage_logs').select('*').eq('user_id', userId) using NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY environment variables. Show a shadcn/ui Skeleton component while the fetch is in progress. Display the results in a simple table with two columns: date (formatted as a short date string) and action (the log event name). Other TabPanels should remain static.Gate the Billing tab by Clerk organization role
Adds Clerk role-based tab gating — non-admin users see the Billing tab as disabled and get a Sonner toast instead of tab content.
Fetch the current user's Clerk organization membership role using useOrganization() from @clerk/nextjs. If the role is not 'admin', render the 'Billing' TabButton as visually disabled (opacity-40 cursor-not-allowed) and call toast('Admin access required', { description: 'Contact your organization admin to access billing.' }) using Sonner when the disabled tab is clicked — instead of switching tabs. Ensure the ActiveIndicator does not animate to a disabled tab. The tab should still appear in the strip so the layout spacing is preserved.Gotchas when you extend it
The failures people actually hit when they push this template past its defaults — and the exact fix for each.
Framer Motion layoutId animation breaks after tab re-mount (ActiveIndicator jumps instead of sliding)Why: If the entire TabsContainer component unmounts during Next.js navigation (e.g., placed in a page file that remounts on every route change), the layoutId 'underline' forgets its previous position and the ActiveIndicator jumps to the new tab on the next visit instead of sliding.
Fix: Move the TabsContainer to a layout file that persists across route changes, or use React.memo to prevent full unmounts when only the active tab index changes.
Fix the ActiveIndicator jumping on re-mount — ensure the TabsContainer is not unmounted during Next.js navigation by moving it to a persistent layout component or using React.memo to preserve state.
Tabs are not keyboard accessible (arrow key navigation missing or broken)Why: If V0 built the tabs as custom buttons without the Radix Tabs primitive, arrow key navigation and aria-selected may not be wired up — the TabButton elements act as regular buttons with no keyboard cycling.
Fix: Add a keydown handler to the TabsContainer that listens for ArrowLeft and ArrowRight and cycles the active index, with focus() called on the target tab button ref. Add aria-selected and aria-controls attributes to each TabButton.
Add keyboard navigation to the TabsContainer — pressing ArrowLeft/ArrowRight should move focus and activate the previous/next tab respectively. Add aria-selected and aria-controls attributes to each TabButton.
Active tab state lost on page refresh (URL not synced)Why: Without URL sync, a page refresh always resets to the first tab — users lose their position in multi-section settings pages.
Fix: Use useSearchParams() and router.replace() to sync the active tab to a ?tab= searchParam, or use localStorage as a simpler fallback.
Sync the active tab to the URL via a ?tab= searchParam using useSearchParams and router.replace from next/navigation, so the correct tab is restored on page refresh.
Tailwind v3/v4 conflict: border-b-2 ActiveIndicator invisible after local cloneWhy: The ActiveIndicator relies on Tailwind border-b utilities and absolute positioning relative to a parent with position: relative. In Tailwind v4, if position utilities changed or custom border colors aren't configured in the new CSS-based config, the indicator div disappears.
Fix: Inspect the indicator div in browser DevTools. Confirm it has a computed height greater than 0 and the border-color is not transparent. Prompt V0 to explicitly set the indicator height and border-color.
Fix the tab ActiveIndicator visibility after Tailwind v4 migration — ensure the indicator div has explicit height (h-0.5), border-color (border-b-2 border-current), and is absolutely positioned relative to the TabsContainer parent.
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 need a settings page or dashboard section switcher with the Vercel slide-indicator aesthetic
- You have 3–6 tabs with static or lazily-loaded content
- You want the layoutId animation working out of the box without custom CSS
- Your audience recognizes the Vercel design language — developer tools, SaaS dashboards
Go custom when
- You need tabs that function as full route segments with per-tab data fetching at the page level — better served by Next.js nested layouts
- You need more than 8 tabs with overflow scrolling and a mobile carousel behavior
- You need fully server-rendered tab content where each tab panel has its own SSR data fetch
If you need the tab system wired to a multi-tenant Supabase schema (per-organization settings) or integrated with a billing provider, RapidDev can handle the full backend integration.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Vercel-Style Tabs v0 template free to fork?
Yes. All V0 community templates are free to fork with any v0.dev account. Forking does not consume credits. Framer Motion and shadcn/ui are both MIT-licensed with no commercial restrictions on the npm packages.
Can I use this tab component in a commercial product?
Yes. The generated V0 code is yours to own and use in any product. Framer Motion's commercial licensing only applies to the no-code Framer website builder — the React npm package (framer-motion) is MIT-licensed and free for commercial use in your own apps.
Why does my fork's ActiveIndicator jump instead of slide after navigation?
This happens when the TabsContainer component unmounts entirely during Next.js page navigation — Framer Motion's layoutId loses its position memory and the indicator jumps on the next mount. Move the TabsContainer to a layout file that persists across route changes (not inside individual page files), or use React.memo to prevent unnecessary unmounts.
Why does the active tab reset to the first tab on page refresh?
Without URL sync, active tab state lives only in React state (useState) and is lost on refresh. Use the medium prompt in the pack to sync the active tab to a ?tab= URL searchParam — this makes tabs bookmarkable and restores the correct tab on refresh.
How does the Framer Motion layoutId underline animation work?
The ActiveIndicator is a motion.div with layoutId='underline'. When the active tab changes and the indicator re-renders in a new position in the DOM, Framer Motion detects that the same layoutId moved and automatically interpolates the position with a spring animation. No manual calculation of tab positions needed — it's purely declarative.
Why is the ActiveIndicator invisible after I cloned the project locally?
The most common cause is a Tailwind v3/v4 mismatch. V0 generates border-b-2 and border-current classes from Tailwind v3; in a local project using Tailwind v4 (which dropped tailwind.config.js), these may not render. Check your Tailwind version with npx tailwindcss --version. The fix prompt in the gotchas section above updates the indicator to use explicit inline styles or v4-compatible utilities.
Can RapidDev wire these tabs to a Supabase backend or Clerk auth?
Yes. If you need the tab panels connected to per-organization Supabase data, role-gated tabs via Clerk, or the tab system integrated into a multi-tenant dashboard, RapidDev can scope and deliver that as a production backend integration.
Does this template work on mobile, or is it desktop-only?
The template works on mobile but may not handle overflow gracefully when there are more than 4 tabs on narrow screens — the tab strip can overflow horizontally. For 3–4 tabs it's fine as-is. For more tabs or small screens, you need to add overflow-x-auto to the tab strip container and hide the scrollbar. The v0-issues responsive guide linked in the cross-activity section covers this pattern.
Outgrowing the template?
RapidDev turns v0 prototypes into production apps — real auth, database, and payments — at $13K–$25K.
Book a free consultation30-min call. No commitment.