breadcrumb: simplify appearance, improve extensibility

scss/_breadcrumb.scss

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
       float: left; // Suppress inline spacings and underlining of the separator
       padding-right: $breadcrumb-item-padding-x;
       color: $breadcrumb-divider-color;
-      content: escape-svg($breadcrumb-divider);
+      content: var(--#{$variable-prefix}breadcrumb-divider, escape-svg($breadcrumb-divider));
     }
   }
 

scss/_variables.scss

@@ -1245,15 +1245,15 @@ $figure-caption-color:              $gray-600 !default;
 // Breadcrumbs
 
 $breadcrumb-font-size:              null !default;
-$breadcrumb-padding-y:              $spacer / 2 !default;
-$breadcrumb-padding-x:              $spacer !default;
+$breadcrumb-padding-y:              0 !default;
+$breadcrumb-padding-x:              0 !default;
 $breadcrumb-item-padding-x:         .5rem !default;
 $breadcrumb-margin-bottom:          1rem !default;
-$breadcrumb-bg:                     $gray-200 !default;
+$breadcrumb-bg:                     null !default;
 $breadcrumb-divider-color:          $gray-600 !default;
 $breadcrumb-active-color:           $gray-600 !default;
 $breadcrumb-divider:                quote("/") !default;
-$breadcrumb-border-radius:          $border-radius !default;
+$breadcrumb-border-radius:          null !default;
 
 // Carousel
 

site/content/docs/5.0/components/breadcrumb.md

@@ -3,10 +3,13 @@ layout: docs
 title: Breadcrumb
 description: Indicate the current page's location within a navigational hierarchy that automatically adds separators via CSS.
 group: components
+toc: true
 ---
 
 ## Example
 
+Use an ordered or unordered list with linked list items to create a minimally styled breadcrumb. Use our utilities to add additional styles as desired.
+
 {{< example >}}
 <nav aria-label="breadcrumb">
   <ol class="breadcrumb">
@@ -30,21 +33,51 @@ group: components
 </nav>
 {{< /example >}}
 
-## Changing the separator
+## Dividers
+
+Dividers are automatically added in CSS through [`::before`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/::before) and [`content`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/content). They can be changed by modifying a local CSS custom property `--bs-breadcrumb-divider`, or through the `$breadcrumb-divider` Sass variable. We default to our Sass variable, which is set as a fallback to the custom property. This way, you get a global divider that you can override without recompiling CSS at any time.
+
+{{< example >}}
+<nav style="--bs-breadcrumb-divider: '>';" aria-label="breadcrumb">
+  <ol class="breadcrumb">
+    <li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
+    <li class="breadcrumb-item active" aria-current="page">Library</li>
+  </ol>
+</nav>
+{{< /example >}}
 
-Separators are automatically added in CSS through [`::before`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/::before) and [`content`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/content). They can be changed by changing `$breadcrumb-divider`. The [quote](https://sass-lang.com/documentation/modules/string#quote) function is needed to generate the quotes around a string, so if you want `>` as separator, you can use this:
+When modifying via Sass, the [quote](https://sass-lang.com/documentation/modules/string#quote) function is required to generate the quotes around a string. For example, using `>` as the divider, you can use this:
 
 ```scss
 $breadcrumb-divider: quote(">");
 ```
 
-It's also possible to use an **embedded SVG icon**:
+It's also possible to use an **embedded SVG icon**. Apply it via our CSS custom property, or use the Sass variable.
+
+{{< example >}}
+<nav style="--bs-breadcrumb-divider: url(&#34;data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='8' height='8'%3E%3Cpath d='M2.5 0L1 1.5 3.5 4 1 6.5 2.5 8l4-4-4-4z' fill='currentColor'/%3E%3C/svg%3E&#34;);" aria-label="breadcrumb">
+  <ol class="breadcrumb">
+    <li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
+    <li class="breadcrumb-item active" aria-current="page">Library</li>
+  </ol>
+</nav>
+{{< /example >}}
 
 ```scss
 $breadcrumb-divider: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='8' height='8'%3E%3Cpath d='M2.5 0L1 1.5 3.5 4 1 6.5 2.5 8l4-4-4-4z' fill='currentColor'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
 ```
 
-The separator can be removed by setting `$breadcrumb-divider` to `none`:
+You can also remove the divider setting `--bs-breadcrumb-divider: '';` (empty strings in CSS custom properties counts as a value), or setting the Sass variable to `$breadcrumb-divider: none;`.
+
+{{< example >}}
+<nav style="--bs-breadcrumb-divider: '';" aria-label="breadcrumb">
+  <ol class="breadcrumb">
+    <li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
+    <li class="breadcrumb-item active" aria-current="page">Library</li>
+  </ol>
+</nav>
+{{< /example >}}
+
 
 ```scss
 $breadcrumb-divider: none;

site/content/docs/5.0/migration.md

@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ toc: true
 
 - Renamed `scale-color()` function to `shift-color()` to avoid collision with Sass's own color scaling function.
 
+### Components
+
+#### Breadcrumbs
+
+- Simplified the default appearance of breadcrumbs by removing `padding`, `background-color`, and `border-radius`.
+- Added new CSS custom property `--bs-breadcrumb-divider` for easy customization without needing to recompile CSS.
+
 ## v5.0.0-alpha3
 
 ### Browser support