Transition

The Transition component lets you add enter/leave transitions to conditionally rendered elements, using CSS classes to control the actual transition styles in the different stages of the transition.

To get started, install Headless UI via npm:

npm install @headlessui/react

The Transition accepts a show prop that controls whether the children should be shown or hidden, and a set of lifecycle props (like enterFrom, and leaveTo) that let you add CSS classes at specific phases of a transition.

import { Transition } from '@headlessui/react' import { useState } from 'react' function MyComponent() { const [isShowing, setIsShowing] = useState(false) return ( <> <button onClick={() => setIsShowing((isShowing) => !isShowing)}> Toggle </button> <Transition show={isShowing} enter="transition-opacity duration-75" enterFrom="opacity-0" enterTo="opacity-100" leave="transition-opacity duration-150" leaveFrom="opacity-100" leaveTo="opacity-0" > I will fade in and out </Transition> </> ) }

Wrap the content that should be conditionally rendered in a <Transition> component, and use the show prop to control whether the content should be visible or hidden.

import { Transition } from '@headlessui/react' import { useState } from 'react' function MyComponent() { const [isShowing, setIsShowing] = useState(false) return ( <> <button onClick={() => setIsShowing((isShowing) => !isShowing)}>
Toggle
</button> <Transition show={isShowing}>I will appear and disappear.</Transition> </> ) }

By default, the transition components will render a div element.

Use the as prop to render a component as a different element or as your own custom component, making sure your custom components forward refs so that Headless UI can wire things up correctly.

import { forwardRef, useState, Fragment } from 'react' import { Dialog, Transition } from '@headlessui/react'
let MyDialogPanel = forwardRef(function (props, ref) {
return <Dialog.Panel className="" ref={ref} {...props} />
})
function MyDialog() { let [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(true) return ( <Transition
as={Dialog}
show={isOpen} onClose={() => setIsOpen(false)} >
<Transition.Child
as={MyDialogPanel}
enter="ease-out duration-300" enterFrom="opacity-0 scale-95" enterTo="opacity-100 scale-100" leave="ease-in duration-200" leaveFrom="opacity-100 scale-100" leaveTo="opacity-0 scale-95" >
<Dialog.Title>Deactivate account</Dialog.Title> {/* ... */} </Transition.Child> </Transition> ) }

By default, a Transition will enter and leave instantly, which is probably not what you're looking for if you're using this component.

To animate your enter/leave transitions, add classes that provide the styling for each phase of the transitions using these props:

  • enter: Applied the entire time an element is entering. Usually you define your duration and what properties you want to transition here, for example transition-opacity duration-75.
  • enterFrom: The starting point to enter from, for example opacity-0 if something should fade in.
  • enterTo: The ending point to enter to, for example opacity-100 after fading in.
  • leave: Applied the entire time an element is leaving. Usually you define your duration and what properties you want to transition here, for example transition-opacity duration-75.
  • leaveFrom: The starting point to leave from, for example opacity-100 if something should fade out.
  • leaveTo: The ending point to leave to, for example opacity-0 after fading out.

Here's an example:

import { Transition } from '@headlessui/react' import { useState } from 'react' function MyComponent() { const [isShowing, setIsShowing] = useState(false) return ( <> <button onClick={() => setIsShowing((isShowing) => !isShowing)}> Toggle </button>
<Transition
show={isShowing}
enter="transition-opacity duration-75"
enterFrom="opacity-0"
enterTo="opacity-100"
leave="transition-opacity duration-150"
leaveFrom="opacity-100" leaveTo="opacity-0" > I will fade in and out </Transition> </> ) }

In this example, the transitioning element will take 75ms to enter (that's the duration-75 class), and will transition the opacity property during that time (that's transition-opacity).

It will start completely transparent before entering (that's opacity-0 in the enterFrom phase), and fade in to completely opaque (opacity-100) when finished (that's the enterTo phase).

When the element is being removed (the leave phase), it will transition the opacity property, and spend 150ms doing it (transition-opacity duration-150).

It will start as completely opaque (the opacity-100 in the leaveFrom phase), and finish as completely transparent (the opacity-0 in the leaveTo phase).

All of these props are optional, and will default to just an empty string.

Sometimes you need to transition multiple elements with different animations but all based on the same state. For example, say the user clicks a button to open a sidebar that slides over the screen, and you also need to fade-in a background overlay at the same time.

You can do this by wrapping the related elements with a parent Transition component, and wrapping each child that needs its own transition styles with a Transition.Child component, which will automatically communicate with the parent Transition and inherit the parent's show state.

import { Transition } from '@headlessui/react' function Sidebar({ isShowing }) { return ( /* The `show` prop controls all nested `Transition.Child` components. */ <Transition show={isShowing}> {/* Background overlay */} <Transition.Child enter="transition-opacity ease-linear duration-300" enterFrom="opacity-0" enterTo="opacity-100" leave="transition-opacity ease-linear duration-300" leaveFrom="opacity-100" leaveTo="opacity-0" > {/* ... */} </Transition.Child> {/* Sliding sidebar */} <Transition.Child enter="transition ease-in-out duration-300 transform" enterFrom="-translate-x-full" enterTo="translate-x-0" leave="transition ease-in-out duration-300 transform" leaveFrom="translate-x-0" leaveTo="-translate-x-full" > {/* ... */} </Transition.Child> </Transition> ) }

The Transition.Child component has the exact same API as the Transition component, but with no show prop, since the show value is controlled by the parent.

Parent Transition components will always automatically wait for all children to finish transitioning before unmounting, so you don't need to manage any of that timing yourself.

If you want an element to transition the very first time it's rendered, set the appear prop to true.

This is useful if you want something to transition in on initial page load, or when its parent is conditionally rendered.

import { Transition } from '@headlessui/react' function MyComponent({ isShowing }) { return ( <Transition
appear={true}
show={isShowing} enter="transition-opacity duration-75" enterFrom="opacity-0" enterTo="opacity-100" leave="transition-opacity duration-150" leaveFrom="opacity-100" leaveTo="opacity-0" >
{/* Your content goes here*/} </Transition> ) }

PropDefaultDescription
show
Boolean

Whether the children should be shown or hidden.

asdiv
String | Component

The element or component to render in place of the Transition itself.

appearfalse
Boolean

Whether the transition should run on initial mount.

unmounttrue
Boolean

Whether the element should be unmounted or hidden based on the show state.

enter
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element during the entire enter phase.

enterFrom
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element before the enter phase starts.

enterTo
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element immediately after the enter phase starts.

entered
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element once the transition is done. These classes will persist after that, until it's time to leave.

leave
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element during the entire leave phase.

leaveFrom
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element before the leave phase starts.

leaveTo
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element immediately after the leave phase starts.

beforeEnter
() => void

Callback which is called before we start the enter transition.

afterEnter
() => void

Callback which is called after we finished the enter transition.

beforeLeave
() => void

Callback which is called before we start the leave transition.

afterLeave
() => void

Callback which is called after we finished the leave transition.

PropDefaultDescription
asdiv
String | Component

The element or component to render in place of the Transition itself.

appearfalse
Boolean

Whether the transition should run on initial mount.

unmounttrue
Boolean

Whether the element should be unmounted or hidden based on the show state.

enter
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element during the entire enter phase.

enterFrom
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element before the enter phase starts.

enterTo
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element immediately after the enter phase starts.

entered
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element once the transition is done. These classes will persist after that, until it's time to leave.

leave
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element during the entire leave phase.

leaveFrom
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element before the leave phase starts.

leaveTo
String

Classes to add to the transitioning element immediately after the leave phase starts.

beforeEnter
() => void

Callback which is called before we start the enter transition.

afterEnter
() => void

Callback which is called after we finished the enter transition.

beforeLeave
() => void

Callback which is called before we start the leave transition.

afterLeave
() => void

Callback which is called after we finished the leave transition.

If you're interested in predesigned component examples using Headless UI and Tailwind CSS, check out Tailwind UI — a collection of beautifully designed and expertly crafted components built by us.

It's a great way to support our work on open-source projects like this and makes it possible for us to improve them and keep them well-maintained.