Nuxt 3/Nuxt UI UNavigationMenu won’t highlight hash‐based section on page reload

[Aravinda93]

Environment

"nuxt": "^3.17.5",
"@nuxt/ui": "^3.1.3",

Is this bug related to Nuxt or Vue?

Nuxt

Version

3.1.3

Reproduction

Following is my components/AppHeader.vue:

<template>
  <header class="bg-white sticky top-0 z-50">
    <nav class="hidden lg:flex flex-1 justify-center">
      <UNavigationMenu
        v-model="activeSection"
        :items="navItems"
        class="space-x-2"
        highlight
        highlight-color="primary"
      >
        <template #item="{ item, active }">
          <ULink
            as-child
            :to="{ path: '', hash: `#${item.to}` }"
            exact-hash
            class="px-4 py-2 rounded-md transition"
            aria-label="Go to {{ item.label }}"
          >
            <span class="inline-flex items-center">
              <UIcon v-if="item.icon" :name="item.icon" class="size-5 mr-2" />
              <span>{{ item.label }}</span>
            </span>
          </ULink>
        </template>
      </UNavigationMenu>
    </nav>
  </header>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import { ref, watch, onMounted } from "vue";
import { useRoute } from "vue-router";
import type { NavigationMenuItem } from "@nuxt/ui";

const route = useRoute();
const activeSection = ref("");

// Define your nav data (to = hash without leading '#')
const navItems = ref<NavigationMenuItem[]>([
  { label: "Home", icon: "i-lucide-home", value: "", to: "" },
  {
    label: "About Us",
    icon: "i-lucide-user-circle",
    value: "about",
    to: "about",
  },
  {
    label: "Products",
    icon: "i-lucide-package",
    value: "products",
    to: "products",
  },
  {
    label: "Technologies",
    icon: "i-lucide-cpu",
    value: "technologies",
    to: "technologies",
  },
  {
    label: "News",
    icon: "i-lucide-newspaper",
    value: "news",
    to: "news",
  },
]);

// On load, seed activeSection from the current hash
onMounted(() => {
  activeSection.value = route.hash.replace(/^#/, "");
});

// Update when the hash changes
watch(
  () => route.hash,
  (h) => {
    activeSection.value = h.replace(/^#/, "");
  }
);
</script>

Description

I’m using the Nuxt UI <UNavigationMenu> component in my Nuxt 3 app to render a header nav that scrolls to sections via hash links within my pages/index.vue (#about, #products, #news, etc.). Clicking works fine, and the correct menu item highlights and scrolls to that section.

However, if I reload the page while viewing, for example,/#products or any other section like #news, #about, etc., the page scrolls to the respective products/news/about section, but the navigation menu always highlights “Home” (the first item) instead of Products/News/About.

How can I get <UNavigationMenu> to pick up the current route.hash on load so that the correct item is active?

Following is the documentation I am refeering to:
API: https://ui.nuxt.com/components/navigation-menu

Additional context

No response

Logs

[J-Michalek]

Could you please provide a reproduction using Stackblitz or similar service?

[github-actions]

Would you be able to provide a reproduction? 🙏

More info

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How can I create a reproduction?

We have templates to create a minimal reproduction:

• Nuxt: https://codesandbox.io/p/devbox/nuxt-ui3-n3sxks
• Vue: https://codesandbox.io/p/devbox/nuxt-ui3-vue-4h5gqn

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[Aravinda93]

@J-Michalek

Thank you for the response, and I apologise for missing the reproduction.
I have created the reproduction within the CodeSandBox: https://codesandbox.io/p/devbox/sharp-hill-fx62n5

I can see the issue there as well. Please let me know if I'm missing something or if it's a bug.

CodeSandBox

[J-Michalek]

It seems to be working as expected when I refresh the reproduction preview, the expected section gets scrolled to and the menu item is highlighted, am I misunderstanding the issue?

Zaznam.2025-06-29.134813.mp4

[Aravinda93]

@J-Michalek

Thanks a lot for taking a look, that's strange. Because in my case, when I reload, it does not highlight the item in the Navigation Menu for some reason. I tried the normal Chrome, Incognito mode, as well as Firefox, thinking maybe any extension causing the issue, but I am seeing the issue in all 3 browser windows.

Following is my screencast:

Following is my AppHeader.vue component:

AppHeader.vue

<template>
<header class="bg-white sticky top-0 z-50">
  <nav class="hidden lg:flex flex-1 justify-center">
    <UNavigationMenu
      v-model="activeSection"
      :items="navItems"
      class="space-x-2"
      highlight
      highlight-color="primary"
    >
      <template #item="{ item, active }">
        <ULink
          as-child
          :to="{ path: '', hash: item.to === '' ? '' : `#${item.to}` }"
          exact-hash
          class="px-4 py-2 rounded-md transition"
          aria-label="Go to {{ item.label }}"
        >
          <span class="inline-flex items-center">
            <UIcon v-if="item.icon" :name="item.icon" class="size-5 mr-2" />
            <span>{{ item.label }}</span>
          </span>
        </ULink>
      </template>
    </UNavigationMenu>
  </nav>
</header>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import { ref, watch, onMounted } from "vue";
import { useRoute } from "vue-router";
import type { NavigationMenuItem } from "@nuxt/ui";

const route = useRoute();
const activeSection = ref("");

// Define your nav data (to = hash without leading '#')
const navItems = ref<NavigationMenuItem[]>([
{ label: "Home", icon: "i-lucide-home", value: "", to: "" },
{
  label: "About Us",
  icon: "i-lucide-user-circle",
  value: "about",
  to: "about",
},
{
  label: "Products",
  icon: "i-lucide-package",
  value: "products",
  to: "products",
},
{
  label: "Technologies",
  icon: "i-lucide-cpu",
  value: "technologies",
  to: "technologies",
},
{
  label: "News",
  icon: "i-lucide-newspaper",
  value: "news",
  to: "news",
},
]);

onMounted(() => {
activeSection.value = route.hash.replace(/^#/, "");
});

watch(
() => route.hash,
(h) => {
  activeSection.value = h.replace(/^#/, "");
},
);
</script>

[Aravinda93]

@J-Michalek

I tried a couple of things, but I'm still unable to make it work. I am not sure how it is working in your case. The following is my screen recording from the Chrome browser.

Screen.Recording.2025-06-30.at.09.00.36.mov

[J-Michalek]

I've spent some time debugging this and it seems like it is due to a hydration mismatch which is reported in the console. I tried setting ssr: false in nuxt.config.ts and it started working I suppose it was behaving differently in the reproduction as I was using the preview and did not open in a new tab.

If you need to fix it ASAP I suppose wrapping the navigation in ClientOnly should work.

Are you also seeing the mismatch being reported inside of your project?

[Aravinda93]

@J-Michalek

Thanks a lot for taking your time to debug and identify the issue. I am seeing the warning message hydration mismatch in my local project as well. I can use ClientOnly to wrap my AppHeader temporarily until we have the fix.