Get started

To get started with Navigation 3, add the library to your project along with any supporting libraries. Use the following table to decide which libraries to add:

Artifacts

Name

What it does

Artifact

Navigation 3 runtime library

Core Navigation 3 API. Includes NavEntry, EntryProvider and the associated DSL.

androidx.navigation3:navigation3-runtime

Navigation 3 UI library

Provides classes to display content, including NavDisplay and Scene.

androidx.navigation3:navigation3-ui

ViewModel Lifecycle for Navigation 3

Allows ViewModels to be scoped to entries in the back stack.

androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-navigation3

Material 3 adaptive layouts for Navigation 3

Provides adaptive layouts (SceneStrategies, Scenes and metadata definitions) for use with NavDisplay.

androidx.compose.material3.adaptive:adaptive-navigation3

KotlinX Serialization

Allows navigation keys to be serialized.

Plugin: org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.serialization

Library:

org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-serialization-core

Project setup

To add the Navigation 3 library to your existing project, add the following to your libs.versions.toml:

[versions]
nav3Core = "1.0.0"
lifecycleViewmodelNav3 = "2.10.0"
kotlinSerialization = "2.2.21"
kotlinxSerializationCore = "1.9.0"
material3AdaptiveNav3 = "1.3.0-alpha05"

[libraries]
# Core Navigation 3 libraries
androidx-navigation3-runtime = { module = "androidx.navigation3:navigation3-runtime", version.ref = "nav3Core" }
androidx-navigation3-ui = { module = "androidx.navigation3:navigation3-ui", version.ref = "nav3Core" }

# Optional add-on libraries
androidx-lifecycle-viewmodel-navigation3 = { module = "androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-navigation3", version.ref = "lifecycleViewmodelNav3" }
kotlinx-serialization-core = { module = "org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-serialization-core", version.ref = "kotlinxSerializationCore" }
androidx-material3-adaptive-navigation3 = { group = "androidx.compose.material3.adaptive", name = "adaptive-navigation3", version.ref = "material3AdaptiveNav3" }

[plugins]
# Optional plugins
jetbrains-kotlin-serialization = { id = "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.serialization", version.ref = "kotlinSerialization"}

Also, update your compile SDK to 36 or later:

[versions]
compileSdk = "36"

Add the following to your app build file app/build.gradle.kts:

plugins {
    ...
    // Optional, provides the @Serialize annotation for autogeneration of Serializers.
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrains.kotlin.serialization)
}

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation(libs.androidx.navigation3.ui)
    implementation(libs.androidx.navigation3.runtime)
    implementation(libs.androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.navigation3)
    implementation(libs.androidx.material3.adaptive.navigation3)
    implementation(libs.kotlinx.serialization.core)
}