Shell | Navigation

All navigation in Shiny Shell goes through the INavigator interface. Inject it into your ViewModels via constructor injection.

public class MyViewModel(INavigator navigator)
{
    // navigator is ready to use
}

NavigateTo (Route)

Navigate to a registered route by name, optionally passing arguments as key-value tuples.

// Simple route navigation
await navigator.NavigateTo("details");

// With arguments
await navigator.NavigateTo("details", ("Id", 42), ("Name", "Allan"));

Arguments are received on the target ViewModel via IQueryAttributable.ApplyQueryAttributes.

NavigateTo (ViewModel)

Navigate by ViewModel type with an optional configuration action for strongly-typed argument passing.

// Navigate to a ViewModel
await navigator.NavigateTo<DetailViewModel>();

// With strongly-typed property setup
await navigator.NavigateTo<DetailViewModel>(vm => vm.Id = 42);

// With additional route arguments
await navigator.NavigateTo<DetailViewModel>(
    vm => vm.Id = 42,
    ("ExtraArg", "value")
);

Note

If you are setting properties on the ViewModel during navigation, those properties should be observable (e.g. use [ObservableProperty] or raise PropertyChanged) if they are bound on the Page.

SetRoot

Replace the navigation stack with a new root ViewModel.

// Set a new root
await navigator.SetRoot<HomeViewModel>();

// With configuration
await navigator.SetRoot<HomeViewModel>(vm => vm.WelcomeMessage = "Hello!");

GoBack

Navigate back one or more pages, optionally passing arguments to the previous ViewModel.

// Simple go back
await navigator.GoBack();

// Go back with arguments
await navigator.GoBack(("Result", "saved"), ("Timestamp", DateTime.UtcNow));

// Go back multiple pages
await navigator.GoBack(2);

// Go back multiple pages with arguments
await navigator.GoBack(2, ("Result", "saved"));

PopToRoot

Pop the entire navigation stack back to the root page.

await navigator.PopToRoot();

// With arguments
await navigator.PopToRoot(("Status", "complete"));

Alert

Display a simple alert dialog.

await navigator.Alert("Error", "Something went wrong", "OK");

Parameter	Type	Description
title	string	Alert title
message	string	Alert body text
acceptText	string	Button text (default: “OK”)

Confirm

Display a confirmation dialog and return the user’s choice.

bool confirmed = await navigator.Confirm(
    "Delete Item",
    "Are you sure you want to delete this?",
    "Delete",
    "Cancel"
);

if (confirmed)
{
    // proceed with deletion
}

Parameter	Type	Description
title	string	Dialog title
message	string	Dialog body text
acceptText	string	Accept button text (default: “OK”)
cancelText	string	Cancel button text (default: “Cancel”)

Passing Arguments

Arguments passed during navigation are delivered via the MAUI built-in IQueryAttributable interface.

public class DetailViewModel : IQueryAttributable
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public void ApplyQueryAttributes(IDictionary<string, object> query)
    {
        if (query.TryGetValue("Id", out var id))
            Id = (int)id;
    }
}

This works for arguments passed via NavigateTo, GoBack, and PopToRoot.

Tip

When using ViewModel-based navigation (NavigateTo<TViewModel>), you can skip IQueryAttributable entirely and set properties directly via the configuration action. This is the recommended approach for strongly-typed navigation.