Skip to main content
shadcn/ui components have first-class support for right-to-left (RTL) layouts. Text alignment, positioning, and directional styles automatically adapt for languages like Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian. When you install components, the CLI automatically transforms physical positioning classes to logical equivalents, so your components work seamlessly in both LTR and RTL contexts.

​
Getting Started

1
Enable RTL in your project
2
To enable RTL support in your project, set the rtl option to true in your components.json file:
3
{
  "$schema": "https://ui.shadcn.com/schema.json",
  "rtl": true,
  "style": "new-york",
  "rsc": true,
  "tsx": true,
  "tailwind": {
    "config": "",
    "css": "src/app/globals.css",
    "baseColor": "zinc",
    "cssVariables": true
  },
  "iconLibrary": "lucide",
  "aliases": {
    "components": "@/components",
    "utils": "@/lib/utils",
    "ui": "@/components/ui",
    "lib": "@/lib",
    "hooks": "@/hooks"
  }
}
4
Add the direction component
5
Add the direction component to your project:
6
npx shadcn@latest add direction
7
Add DirectionProvider
8
Wrap your application with the DirectionProvider component:
9
import { DirectionProvider } from "@/components/direction-provider"

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="ar" dir="rtl">
      <body>
        <DirectionProvider>
          {children}
        </DirectionProvider>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

​
How it works

When you add components with rtl: true set in your components.json, the shadcn CLI automatically transforms classes and props to be RTL compatible:
  • Physical positioning classes like left-* and right-* are converted to logical equivalents like start-* and end-*.
  • Directional props are updated to use logical values.
  • Text alignment and spacing classes are adjusted accordingly.
  • Supported icons are automatically flipped using rtl:rotate-180.

​
Supported Styles

Automatic RTL transformation via the CLI is only available for projects created using shadcn create with the new styles (base-nova, radix-nova, etc.). For other styles, see the Migration Guide.

​
Font Recommendations

For the best RTL experience, we recommend using fonts that have proper support for your target language. Noto is a great font family for this and it pairs well with Inter and Geist. 
import { Noto_Sans_Arabic } from "next/font/google"

const notoSansArabic = Noto_Sans_Arabic({
  subsets: ["arabic"],
  variable: "--font-sans",
})

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="ar" dir="rtl">
      <body className={notoSansArabic.variable}>
        {children}
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

​
Animations

The CLI also handles animation classes, automatically transforming physical directional animations to their logical equivalents. For example, slide-in-from-right becomes slide-in-from-end. This ensures animations like dropdowns, popovers, and tooltips animate in the correct direction based on the document’s text direction.
There is a known issue with the tw-animate-css library where the logical slide utilities are not working as expected. For now, make sure you pass in the dir prop to portal elements.
showLineNumbers
<Popover>
  <PopoverTrigger>Open</PopoverTrigger>
  <PopoverContent dir="rtl">
    <div>Content</div>
  </PopoverContent>
</Popover>
showLineNumbers
<Tooltip>
  <TooltipTrigger>Open</TooltipTrigger>
  <TooltipContent dir="rtl">
    <div>Content</div>
  </TooltipContent>
</Tooltip>

​
Migrating existing components

If you have existing components installed before enabling RTL, you can migrate them using the CLI as follows:
1
Run the migrate command
2
npx shadcn@latest migrate rtl [path]
3
[path] accepts a path or glob pattern to migrate. If you don’t provide a path, it will migrate all the files in the ui directory.
4
Manual Migration (Optional)
5
The following components are not automatically migrated by the CLI. Follow the RTL support section for each component to manually migrate them.
6
  • Calendar
  • Pagination
  • Sidebar
    • 7
    Migrate Icons
    8
    Some icons like ArrowRightIcon or ChevronLeftIcon might need the rtl:rotate-180 class to be flipped correctly. Add the rtl:rotate-180 class to the icon component to flip it correctly.
    9
    <ArrowRightIcon className="rtl:rotate-180" />

    Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

    Get started for freeTalk to us