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Full Navigation Tab entry
How-to guide

How to add and reorder navigation tabs in a Lightning app

Configure the navigation bar for a Lightning app from Setup > App Manager. The change applies to every user assigned to the app's profiles or permission sets and ships through change sets or a DX project.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Founder & Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated May 21, 2026

Configure the navigation bar for a Lightning app from Setup > App Manager. The change applies to every user assigned to the app's profiles or permission sets and ships through change sets or a DX project.

  1. Open App Manager and edit the target app

    Navigate to Setup > App Manager, find the Lightning app, and click the dropdown arrow on the right to choose Edit. Standard apps cannot be edited directly; clone them first.

  2. Open the Navigation Items step

    From the side menu in the App Wizard, click Navigation Items. The left pane shows all available tabs in the org; the right pane shows the tabs currently in this app, in the order users see them.

  3. Add and reorder tabs

    Move tabs from left to right with the arrow buttons. Use the up/down arrows on the right-pane list to set order. The first item is the landing page when a user opens the app, so put the most-used object at the top.

  4. Pick the temporary tab behavior

    Toggle Personalization to control whether users can edit their own nav bar. Leave it on for sales apps, turn it off for tightly controlled console apps where uniformity matters.

  5. Save and assign profiles or permission sets

    Move to the User Profiles step and assign every profile that should see the app. Users without an assignment cannot find the app in the App Launcher. Save the app to publish the change instantly.

Key options
Object tabremember

Default tab type for standard and custom objects; opens the most recent list view.

Web tabremember

Renders an external URL inside an iframe. Useful for embedding intranet pages but breaks if the external site sends X-Frame-Options DENY.

Visualforce tabremember

Wraps a Visualforce page as a tab. Surviving from Classic but still supported for legacy customizations.

Lightning Component tabremember

Surfaces an LWC or Aura component as a tab. Modern way to build custom landing pages.

Lightning Page tabremember

Exposes a Lightning App Page built in App Builder as a navigation tab. Drag-and-drop, no code.

Gotchas
  • The first navigation item becomes the app landing page. Putting the Home page first usually hurts; put the highest-frequency object there instead.
  • Users only see tabs whose underlying object or page they have permission to view. A tab pinned in the nav bar but blocked by a profile shows a Tab Hidden error on click.
  • Web tabs that point to sites with strict X-Frame-Options or Content-Security-Policy headers will render blank. Use a Canvas app or a Lightning Component with iframe support if the target site cannot be embedded directly.
  • Edit App Navigation lets users add tabs the admin did not put in the bar. If you need a tab to be unreachable in this app, set Tab Hidden on the profile, not just absent from the nav.

See the full Navigation Tab entry

Navigation Tab includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.