# Orchardcore Menus

> Skill for creating and managing menus in Orchard Core. Covers menu content types, link, content, and HTML menu item types, navigation rendering, menu shape differentiators and alternates, and recipes. Use this skill when requests mention Orchard Core Menus, Create and Manage Navigation Menus, Enabling Menu Features, Menu Item Types, Creating a Menu via Recipe, Multi-Level Navigation Menu, or closely related Orchard Core implementation, setup, extension, or troubleshooting work.

- Skill: `crestapps/orchardcore-menus` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add crestapps/orchardcore-menus`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/crestapps/orchardcore-menus/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Web & Frontend
- License: Apache-2.0
- Author: CrestApps (https://skillmd.com/u/crestapps)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/crestapps/orchardcore-menus

---


# Orchard Core Menus

Enable `OrchardCore.Menu`. A menu is a `Menu` content item with
`MenuItemsListPart`; its entries are nested content items such as
`LinkMenuItem`, `ContentMenuItem`, or `HtmlMenuItem`.

## Menu Item Types

| Type | Purpose | URL source |
|---|---|---|
| `LinkMenuItem` | Static navigation link | Hardcoded `LinkMenuItemPart.Url` |
| `ContentMenuItem` | Link derived from a referenced content item | Resolved from the referenced item's route |
| `HtmlMenuItem` | Custom markup inside a menu | HTML stored on `HtmlMenuItemPart` |

See `orchardcore-navigation` for `ContentMenuItem` recipe examples and for registering menus from a code-first `INavigationProvider`.

## Recipe

Wrap every menu item in a complete root recipe document:

```json
{
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Feature",
      "enable": [
        "OrchardCore.Menu",
        "OrchardCore.Widgets",
        "OrchardCore.Layers"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "content",
      "data": [
        {
          "ContentItemId": "4j42fxryjcpqkkacmg6cwz3pr5",
          "ContentType": "Menu",
          "DisplayText": "Main Menu",
          "Latest": true,
          "Published": true,
          "MenuPart": {},
          "TitlePart": {
            "Title": "Main Menu"
          },
          "AliasPart": {
            "Alias": "main-menu"
          },
          "MenuItemsListPart": {
            "MenuItems": [
              {
                "ContentItemId": "4j42fxryjcpqkkacmg6cwz3pr6",
                "ContentType": "LinkMenuItem",
                "DisplayText": "Home",
                "LinkMenuItemPart": {
                  "Url": "~/"
                }
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```

Render a menu directly from a Liquid theme layout with its alias handle:

```liquid
{% shape "menu", alias: "alias:main-menu", cache_id: "main-menu", cache_fixed_duration: "00:05:00", cache_tag: "alias:main-menu", cache_context: "user.roles" %}
```

Menus can be permission-based. Configure permissions on menu items when a
link must be visible only to users who can perform the related action. When
the menu is cached, include `user.roles` in `cache_context` so the output is
varied by the current user's roles.

For a custom `MenuItem` content type, attach `MenuItemPermissionPart` to
enable permission-based visibility. The **Content Menu Item** also provides
a **Check content permissions** option; when enabled, the item is shown only
if the current user has `View Content` permission for the selected item.
Permissions are enabled automatically for new tenants. Run the
`MenuAddPermissions` recipe for an existing tenant that needs the permission
part:

```json
{
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "recipes",
      "Values": [
        {
          "executionid": "MenuAddPermissions",
          "name": "MenuAddPermissions"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```

## Shape Alternates

The menu's display text is normalized to its differentiator. For a display
text of `Main Menu`, the menu gets `Menu__MainMenu` and its child shapes use
the same differentiator. The generated alternates include:

| Shape | Examples |
|---|---|
| `Menu` | `Menu__MainMenu` |
| `MenuItem` | `MenuItem__MainMenu`, `MenuItem__LinkMenuItem`, `MenuItem__MainMenu__LinkMenuItem`, plus `__level__{n}` variants |
| `MenuItemLink` | Equivalent `MenuItemLink__...` alternates |

Use filenames such as `Menu-MainMenu.liquid` and
`MenuItem-MainMenu-LinkMenuItem.cshtml`. The differentiator comes from the
menu display text, not its alias.

Within a custom menu shape, render the existing menu-item shapes directly:

```liquid
<nav aria-label="{{ Model.MenuName }}">
  <ul>
    {% for item in Model.Items %}
      {{ item | shape_render }}
    {% endfor %}
  </ul>
</nav>
```

Render menus directly with the `<menu>` Razor tag helper or the `Menu` Liquid
shape. Menu content items are not built-in widget types.