Breadcrumbs not working when using DefaultTemplate with a CustomRootView

[mikecebul]

Describe the Bug

When using a CustomRootView I want to use the DefaultTemplate, but the breadcrumbs in the navbar isn't working to navigate back to home (to "/admin"). Looking at the source code it appears stepNav.length < 1 resulting in it rendering a <div /> instead of an <a />.

Plus when you navigate to any page in the admin panel like "/admin/pages" and back to "/admin/custom-default" the breadcrumbs component does not update without a browser refresh.

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

create-payload-app --example custom-components

Reproduction Steps

1. Run the custom-components example
2. Navigate to "admin/custom-default"
3. Try to navigate back to the dashboard using the icon in the breadcrumbs

custom-view-issue.mov

Which area(s) are affected? (Select all that apply)

area: core

Environment Info

Binaries:
  Node: 20.18.2
  npm: 10.8.2
  Yarn: 1.22.22
  pnpm: 10.10.0
Relevant Packages:
  payload: 3.37.0
  next: 15.3.2
  @payloadcms/db-mongodb: 3.37.0
  @payloadcms/graphql: 3.37.0
  @payloadcms/next/utilities: 3.37.0
  @payloadcms/richtext-lexical: 3.37.0
  @payloadcms/translations: 3.37.0
  @payloadcms/ui/shared: 3.37.0
  react: 19.1.0
  react-dom: 19.1.0
Operating System:
  Platform: darwin
  Arch: arm64
  Version: Darwin Kernel Version 24.4.0: Fri Apr 11 18:33:47 PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.101.15~117/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000
  Available memory (MB): 16384
  Available CPU cores: 8

[github-actions]

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Useful Resources

• Reproduction Guide
• Contributing to Payload

[mikecebul]

I tried setting the steps manually with:

export const CustomDefaultRootView: React.FC<AdminViewServerProps> = ({
  initPageResult,
  params,
  searchParams,
}) => {
  const nav = [
    { label: "Dashboard", url: "/admin" },
    { label: "Custom Default View", url: "/admin/custom-default" },
  ];
  return (
    <StepNavProvider>
      <DefaultTemplate
        i18n={initPageResult.req.i18n}
        locale={initPageResult.locale}
        params={params}
        payload={initPageResult.req.payload}
        permissions={initPageResult.permissions}
        searchParams={searchParams}
        user={initPageResult.req.user || undefined}
        visibleEntities={initPageResult.visibleEntities}
      >
        <SetStepNav nav={nav} />
        <Gutter>
          <h1>Custom Default Root View</h1>
          <br />
          <p>This view uses the Default Template.</p>
          <CheckSteps />
        </Gutter>
      </DefaultTemplate>
    </StepNavProvider>
  );
};

but the steps are still an empty []

[mikecebul]

Here is my decent enough workaround until this gets resolved.

'use client'

import { HomeIcon } from 'lucide-react'
import Link from 'next/link'
import { usePathname } from 'next/navigation'
import React from 'react'

export default function Icon() {
  const pathname = usePathname()
  const icon = <HomeIcon size={17} className="text-primary" />

  if (pathname === '/admin/analytics') {
    return <Link href="/admin">{icon}</Link>
  }

  return icon
}

[mikecebul]

I was supposed to use the <SetStepNav />

import type { AdminViewServerProps } from 'payload'

import { DefaultTemplate } from '@payloadcms/next/templates'
import { Gutter, SetStepNav } from '@payloadcms/ui'

const AnalyticsDefaultRootView: React.FC<AdminViewServerProps> = ({
  initPageResult,
  params,
  searchParams,
}) => {
  const navItem = [
    {
      label: 'Analytics',
      url: '/analytics',
    },
  ]
  return (
    <DefaultTemplate
      i18n={initPageResult.req.i18n}
      locale={initPageResult.locale}
      params={params}
      payload={initPageResult.req.payload}
      permissions={initPageResult.permissions}
      searchParams={searchParams}
      user={initPageResult.req.user || undefined}
      visibleEntities={initPageResult.visibleEntities}
    >
      <SetStepNav nav={navItem} />  // This sets the bread crumbs
      <Gutter>
        <iframe
          src="https://analytics.mikecebul.dev/share/<key>/basesmi.org"
          width="100%"
          height="100%"
          style={{ border: 'none', overflow: 'hidden', minHeight: '85dvh' }}
          title="Analytics"
          allowFullScreen
          loading="lazy"
        />
      </Gutter>
    </DefaultTemplate>
  )
}

export default AnalyticsDefaultRootView

[github-actions]

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