---
icon: IconDirectory
title: 'layouts'
head.title: Layouts directory
---

# Layouts directory

Nuxt provides a customizable layouts framework you can use throughout your application, ideal for extracting common UI or code patterns into reusable layout components.

Page layouts are placed in the `layouts/` directory and will be automatically loaded via asynchronous import when used. If you create a `layouts/default.vue` this will be used for all pages in your app. Other layouts are used by setting a `layout` property as part of your component's options.

If you only have a single layout in your application, you can alternatively use [app.vue](/docs/directory-structure/app).

## Example: a custom layout

```bash
-| layouts/
---| custom.vue
```

In your layout files, you'll need to use `<slot />` to define where the page content of your layout will be loaded. For example:

```vue
<template>
  <div>
    Some shared layout content:
    <slot />
  </div>
</template>
```

Given the example above, you can use a custom layout like this:

```vue
<script>
// This will also work in `<script setup>`
definePageMeta({
  layout: "custom",
});
</script>
```

::alert{type=info}
Learn more about [defining page meta](/docs/directory-structure/pages#page-metadata).
::

## Example: using with slots

You can also take full control (for example, with slots) by using the `<NuxtLayout>` component (which is globally available throughout your application) by setting `layout: false`.

```vue
<template>
  <NuxtLayout name="custom">
    <template #header> Some header template content. </template>

    The rest of the page
  </NuxtLayout>
</template>

<script setup>
definePageMeta({
  layout: false,
});
</script>
```

## Example: changing the layout

You can also use a ref or computed property for your layout.

```vue
<template>
  <div>
    <button @click="enableCustomLayout">Update layout</button>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
const route = useRoute()
function enableCustomLayout () {
  // Note: because it's within a ref, it will persist if 
  // you navigate away and then back to the page.
  route.meta.layout.value = "custom"
}
definePageMeta({
  layout: ref(false),
});
</script>
```