SGDS Dropdown Component Skill

<sgds-dropdown> is a toggleable overlay menu. It requires a toggler slot element (typically <sgds-button>) and <sgds-dropdown-item> children for list items. For an icon-only three-dot menu, use <sgds-overflow-menu> instead.

Prerequisites

See sgds-components-setup for installation and framework integration (React 19+ vs React ≤18, Vue, Angular).

No CSS styling modifications — custom properties and CSS parts are not exposed on this component.

Quick Decision Guide

Navigation items with <a> tags? → Put <a> inside <sgds-dropdown-item>

No anchor/navigation (action items)? → Put text directly inside <sgds-dropdown-item>

Menu opens upward? → drop="up"

Right-align menu with toggler? → Add menuAlignRight

Prevent menu from flipping when near viewport edge? → Add noFlip

Three-dot overflow menu? → Use <sgds-overflow-menu> instead

<!-- Basic navigation dropdown -->
<sgds-dropdown>
  <sgds-button slot="toggler" role="button">
    Options
    <sgds-icon name="chevron-down" slot="rightIcon"></sgds-icon>
  </sgds-button>
  <sgds-dropdown-item><a href="/profile">Profile</a></sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item><a href="/settings">Settings</a></sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item disabled>Archived</sgds-dropdown-item>
</sgds-dropdown>

<!-- Action dropdown (no navigation) -->
<sgds-dropdown>
  <sgds-button slot="toggler" role="button">
    Actions <sgds-icon name="chevron-down" slot="rightIcon"></sgds-icon>
  </sgds-button>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>View</sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Edit</sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Delete</sgds-dropdown-item>
</sgds-dropdown>

<!-- React to selection -->
<sgds-dropdown id="my-dropdown">
  <sgds-button slot="toggler" role="button">Choose <sgds-icon name="chevron-down" slot="rightIcon"></sgds-icon></sgds-button>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Option A</sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Option B</sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Option C</sgds-dropdown-item>
</sgds-dropdown>

<script>
  document.getElementById("my-dropdown").addEventListener("sgds-select", e => {
    console.log("Selected:", e.detail.item.textContent.trim());
  });
</script>

<!-- Dropdown opens upward -->
<sgds-dropdown drop="up">
  <sgds-button slot="toggler" role="button">Menu above <sgds-icon name="chevron-up" slot="rightIcon"></sgds-icon></sgds-button>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Item 1</sgds-dropdown-item>
  <sgds-dropdown-item>Item 2</sgds-dropdown-item>
</sgds-dropdown>

API Summary

<sgds-dropdown>

Attribute	Type	Default	Purpose
drop	down | up | left | right	down	Direction the menu opens relative to the toggler
menuAlignRight	boolean	false	Right-aligns the menu with the toggler button
noFlip	boolean	false	Prevents auto-flip when menu would overflow viewport
menuIsOpen	boolean	false	Opens the menu on first render
disabled	boolean	false	Disables the toggler and prevents menu from opening
close	default | outside | inside	default	When the menu auto-closes: default (outside click or item click), outside (only outside click), inside (only item click)

<sgds-dropdown-item>

Attribute	Type	Default	Purpose
disabled	boolean	false	Prevents the item from being selected
active	boolean	false	Marks the item as the current active selection
target	string	—	target attribute forwarded to the slotted anchor

Slots

<sgds-dropdown>

Slot	Purpose
toggler	The button or element that opens/closes the menu
(default)	<sgds-dropdown-item> elements

<sgds-dropdown-item>

Slot	Purpose
(default)	Navigation anchor <a> or plain text for action items

Events (<sgds-dropdown>)

Event	Cancelable	Detail	When
sgds-show	No	—	Menu begins opening
sgds-after-show	No	—	Menu fully open
sgds-hide	No	—	Menu begins closing
sgds-after-hide	No	—	Menu fully closed
sgds-select	No	{ item: SgdsDropdownItem }	A dropdown item is clicked

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For AI agents:

1. Always place the toggler element in the toggler slot — it can be any element but <sgds-button> is typical.
2. For navigation, slot an <a> tag inside <sgds-dropdown-item>. For actions (no navigation), slot plain text directly.
3. sgds-select fires on <sgds-dropdown> when any item is clicked — event.detail.item is the clicked <sgds-dropdown-item>.
4. Disabled items do not fire sgds-select.
5. For a three-dot overflow menu, use <sgds-overflow-menu> which is a pre-built convenience wrapper.