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Landmark Shell

Give every page the same navigable regions so people can jump straight to the content.

moderate Components & Primitives

What it adds

A reusable application shell providing labelled banner, navigation, main, complementary, and contentinfo regions on every route.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Find the layouts the app already renders and identify what each region actually is — the top bar, the primary navigation, the page body, any inspector or sidebar, the footer — then express them as landmarks once in the shell rather than per page.

  2. 2

    Give the shell exactly one main region per rendered page, and make it the target of a skip link that is the first focusable thing in the document.

  3. 3

    Label every landmark that appears more than once so they can be told apart — primary navigation, breadcrumb, pagination — using a short distinct name rather than the word navigation repeated.

  4. 4

    Move focus to the main region's heading on route change so keyboard and screen reader users start at the new content rather than back at the top of the navigation, and keep the announcement itself in Live Region Manager rather than adding a second mechanism here.

  5. 5

    Do not achieve the visual arrangement by reordering with layout properties while leaving the source order wrong. Tab order and reading order follow the source, so a sidebar that reads before the main content in source but sits to the right on screen will confuse everyone who does not use a mouse.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • There must be exactly one main region at any moment. A nested layout that renders its own main inside the shell's produces two, and assistive technology then offers the user a meaningless choice.
  • Multiple navigation regions without distinct labels are indistinguishable in a landmark list; every repeated landmark type needs its own accessible name, and those names must not duplicate each other.
  • Visual order and source order must agree. Where a responsive layout moves a region, the source must move with it rather than being repositioned visually only.
  • Route changes that mount a new shell alongside the old one during a transition will briefly duplicate every landmark id and label; ensure the outgoing tree is removed before the incoming one is announced, and generate ids that cannot collide across two mounted instances.
  • Modals and fullscreen surfaces must hide the rest of the shell from assistive technology while open, or the user can arrow out of the dialog into the page behind it.
  • A page with no sidebar or no footer must omit that landmark entirely rather than render an empty labelled region.
  • The skip link must actually move focus, not merely scroll — a hash change that leaves focus at the top of the document does nothing for keyboard users.

Definition of done

9
  • Every route renders exactly one main landmark, wrapped by the shared shell.
  • Banner, navigation, main, complementary, and contentinfo regions are present where they apply and absent where they do not.
  • Repeated landmark types each carry a distinct accessible name.
  • A skip link is the first focusable element and moves focus into main.
  • Source order matches visual order at every breakpoint.
  • No duplicate ids or duplicate landmarks exist at any point during a route transition.
  • An open modal hides the shell from assistive technology until it closes.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.