@magic-spells/panel-stack

A nested-panel stack web component with fluid push/pop transitions. Built for mobile menus, settings drill-downs, multi-step wizards, and anything that wants the feel of a navigation stack.

🔍 Live Demo — See it in action!

• 1.27 KB JS gzip, 0.77 KB CSS gzip, zero dependencies
• Two custom elements: <panel-stack> + <stack-panel>
• Honors prefers-reduced-motion
• inert on hidden panels — focus stays where it should
• All motion tunable via CSS custom properties

Install

npm i @magic-spells/panel-stack

import '@magic-spells/panel-stack';

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/@magic-spells/panel-stack/css/min" />

Markup

<panel-stack initial="root">
  <stack-panel handle="root">
    <button data-action-stack-push target="shop">Shop</button>
    <a href="/about">About</a>
  </stack-panel>

  <stack-panel handle="shop">
    <button data-action-stack-pop>Back</button>
    <button data-action-stack-push target="shop-women">Women</button>
  </stack-panel>

  <stack-panel handle="shop-women">
    <button data-action-stack-pop>Back</button>
    <a href="/dresses">Dresses</a>
  </stack-panel>
</panel-stack>

The parent of <panel-stack> needs a defined size — panels are position: absolute; inset: 0 and the stack clips them.

API

const stack = document.querySelector('panel-stack');

stack.push('shop');              // slide to a panel
stack.push('shop', triggerEl);   // optional 2nd arg — pop() restores focus to it
stack.pop();                     // back one level
stack.reset();                   // collapse to root

stack.currentHandle;   // 'shop'
stack.currentPanel;    // <stack-panel handle="shop">
stack.depth;           // 2

Events

All events bubble + composed. panel-stack:push is cancelable.

stack.addEventListener('panel-stack:push', (e) => {
  console.log(e.detail); // { fromHandle: 'root', toHandle: 'shop' }
});

stack.addEventListener('panel-stack:pop', (e) => { /* { fromHandle, toHandle } */ });
stack.addEventListener('panel-stack:reset', (e) => { /* { rootHandle } */ });

// Cancel a push:
stack.addEventListener('panel-stack:push', (e) => {
  if (e.detail.toHandle === 'admin' && !user.isAdmin) e.preventDefault();
});

Effects

Two visual styles for how state="previous" panels look. Pick one with the effect attribute:

<panel-stack effect="slide"> … </panel-stack>   <!-- default: slides off to the left -->
<panel-stack effect="stack"> … </panel-stack>   <!-- shrinks + blurs + dims behind current -->

effect="stack" keeps the previous panel in place while it scales to 0.95, blurs 1px, dims to brightness(0.5), and drops to z-index: -1 behind the current panel. Pop, and it pops back to full size, sharp, and bright.

Both effects share the same per-state CSS variables, so you can fine-tune either one.

Rounded corners

<panel-stack> and <stack-panel> use border-radius: inherit. Wrap the stack in a container with a radius and the panels pick it up automatically:

<div style="border-radius: 22px; overflow: hidden; width: 320px; height: 540px;">
  <panel-stack effect="stack"> … </panel-stack>
</div>

CSS custom properties

Global timing and perspective:

Property	Default	Description
--ps-transition-duration	420ms	Animation duration (transform + filter)
--ps-transition-timing	cubic-bezier(0.16, 0.87, 0.64, 1)	Easing
--ps-perspective	1200px	Depth of the 3D scene

Per-state position and filter values. Each state has its own translate, scale, blur, opacity, brightness, and z-index — override one state without affecting the others:

Property	Default (current · previous · next)
--ps-translate-{state}	0% · calc(-100% - 50px) · calc(100% + 50px)
--ps-scale-x-{state}	1 · 1.1 · 1.1
--ps-scale-y-{state}	1 · 1 · 1
--ps-blur-{state}	0px · 2px · 2px
--ps-opacity-{state}	1 · 0.1 · 0.1
--ps-z-index-{state}	1 · 0 · 2

--ps-brightness-previous (default 1) is the only brightness knob — effect="stack" uses it to darken the receding panel.

--ps-scale-x-{state} and --ps-scale-y-{state} accept any number — values < 1 shrink the panel, values > 1 stretch it, negative values flip it (mirror).

effect="stack" overrides the previous defaults to: translate 0%, scale 0.95, blur 1px, opacity 1, brightness 0.5, z-index -1. It also sets --ps-opacity-next: 1 so panels coming in from the right aren't faded during the swap.

Example — make the slide flat (no scale, no blur):

panel-stack {
  --ps-scale-x-previous: 1;
  --ps-scale-x-next: 1;
  --ps-blur-previous: 0px;
  --ps-blur-next: 0px;
}

Focus

On push() and reset(), focus moves to the new current panel — specifically:

1. The first descendant with data-stack-focus, if one exists
2. Otherwise the first focusable child (button, link, input, etc.)

On pop(), focus is restored to the element that originally pushed the panel you're leaving — matching native back-button behavior. Declarative data-action-stack-push triggers are remembered automatically; for programmatic pushes pass the trigger as the second arg: stack.push('shop', triggerEl). If the trigger has been removed from the DOM, pop falls back to the destination panel's first focusable.

Inactive panels get inert so they can't trap tab navigation or screen reader focus.

Keyboard

Pressing Escape while focus is inside the stack pops one level — but only when there's somewhere to go back to. At the root panel, Esc bubbles untouched so a wrapping <dialog> closes as normal:

<dialog>
  <panel-stack>
    <stack-panel handle="root">…</stack-panel>
    <stack-panel handle="settings">…</stack-panel>
  </panel-stack>
</dialog>

Drill into settings, hit Esc → goes back to root, dialog stays open. Hit Esc again → dialog closes. No coordination needed between the two.

If a focused input already consumed Esc (e.g., <input type="search"> clearing its value), the stack stays put. Wizards with unsaved work should confirm or block before calling pop().

License

MIT

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Made by Cory Schulz