How to enable full RTL behavior in shadcn/ui Carousel (like Embla’s native RTL support)?

[muhammad-sy1]

I’m using the Carousel component from shadcn/ui , and I need it to behave like Embla’s native RTL mode. I tried:

<Carousel opts={{ direction: "rtl" }}>

but the RTL behavior isn’t fully applied. The issues I’m facing are:

The scroll behavior still feels like LTR

The Previous/Next arrows aren’t reversed visually or functionally

Layout and button positions don’t adapt to RTL mode

Is there an official way to get full RTL support in shadcn/ui Carousel (similar to plain Embla)?
Do I need to manually swap scrollPrev / scrollNext logic and reposition the buttons, or is there a recommended solution or example?

Any working snippet or guidance would be appreciated.

https://codesandbox.io/p/sandbox/gpxgh6 I want it like this

[shafisma]

Shadcn/ui does not currently support full RTL behavior for Carousel out of the box, even though Embla itself does. Passing opts={{ direction: "rtl" }} only enables Embla’s internal RTL logic, but the shadcn/ui wrapper keeps LTR assumptions for button behavior and positioning.

To get true Embla-style RTL behavior, you need three things:

1. Enable RTL both in Embla and in the DOM
2. Manually swap scrollPrev and scrollNext logic
3. Flip the button positioning

Here is a working snippet:

"use client"

import * as React from "react"
import {
  Carousel,
  CarouselContent,
  CarouselItem,
  CarouselNext,
  CarouselPrevious,
  type CarouselApi,
} from "@/components/ui/carousel"

export default function RtlCarousel() {
  const [api, setApi] = React.useState<CarouselApi | null>(null)

  const isRtl =
    typeof document !== "undefined" &&
    document.documentElement.dir === "rtl"

  return (
    <Carousel
      setApi={setApi}
      opts={{ direction: "rtl" }}
      dir="rtl"
      className="w-full max-w-xl"
    >
      <CarouselContent>
        {[1, 2, 3, 4, 5].map((i) => (
          <CarouselItem key={i}>
            <div className="flex h-40 items-center justify-center bg-muted">
              Slide {i}
            </div>
          </CarouselItem>
        ))}
      </CarouselContent>

      <CarouselPrevious
        onClick={() =>
          isRtl ? api?.scrollNext() : api?.scrollPrev()
        }
        className="right-2 left-auto"
      />

      <CarouselNext
        onClick={() =>
          isRtl ? api?.scrollPrev() : api?.scrollNext()
        }
        className="left-2 right-auto"
      />
    </Carousel>
  )
}

This matches native Embla RTL behavior. There is no official shadcn/ui helper for this yet, so manual handling is currently the recommended solution.

[muhammad-sy1]

Thank you for your technical input. Your answer was helpful as a starting point but not sufficient on its own. After further analysis and testing, with the assistance of AI tools, it turned out that modifying the original shadcn/ui component was required. Below is the updated code.

"use client";

import * as React from "react";
import useEmblaCarousel, {
  type UseEmblaCarouselType,
} from "embla-carousel-react";
import { ArrowLeft, ArrowRight } from "lucide-react";

import { cn } from "@/lib/utils";
import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button";
import { useLocale } from "next-intl";

type CarouselApi = UseEmblaCarouselType[1];
type UseCarouselParameters = Parameters<typeof useEmblaCarousel>;
type CarouselOptions = UseCarouselParameters[0];
type CarouselPlugin = UseCarouselParameters[1];

type CarouselProps = {
  opts?: CarouselOptions;
  plugins?: CarouselPlugin;
  orientation?: "horizontal" | "vertical";
  setApi?: (api: CarouselApi) => void;
};

type CarouselContextProps = {
  carouselRef: ReturnType<typeof useEmblaCarousel>[0];
  api: ReturnType<typeof useEmblaCarousel>[1];
  scrollPrev: () => void;
  scrollNext: () => void;
  canScrollPrev: boolean;
  canScrollNext: boolean;
} & CarouselProps;

const CarouselContext = React.createContext<CarouselContextProps | null>(null);

function useCarousel() {
  const context = React.useContext(CarouselContext);

  if (!context) {
    throw new Error("useCarousel must be used within a <Carousel />");
  }

  return context;
}

function Carousel({
  orientation = "horizontal",
  opts,
  setApi,
  plugins,
  className,
  children,
  ...props
}: React.ComponentProps<"div"> & CarouselProps) {
  // import locale from next-intl
  const locale = useLocale();
  const isRTL = locale === "ar";

  const [carouselRef, api] = useEmblaCarousel(
    {
      //  add direction based on locale
      direction: isRTL ? "rtl" : "ltr",
      loop: false,
      ...opts,
      axis: orientation === "horizontal" ? "x" : "y",
    },
    plugins
  );
  const [canScrollPrev, setCanScrollPrev] = React.useState(false);
  const [canScrollNext, setCanScrollNext] = React.useState(false);

  const onSelect = React.useCallback((api: CarouselApi) => {
    if (!api) return;
    setCanScrollPrev(api.canScrollPrev());
    setCanScrollNext(api.canScrollNext());
  }, []);

  const scrollPrev = React.useCallback(() => {
    api?.scrollPrev();
  }, [api]);

  const scrollNext = React.useCallback(() => {
    api?.scrollNext();
  }, [api]);

  const handleKeyDown = React.useCallback(
    (event: React.KeyboardEvent<HTMLDivElement>) => {
      if (event.key === "ArrowLeft") {
        event.preventDefault();
        scrollPrev();
      } else if (event.key === "ArrowRight") {
        event.preventDefault();
        scrollNext();
      }
    },
    [scrollPrev, scrollNext]
  );

  React.useEffect(() => {
    if (!api || !setApi) return;
    setApi(api);
  }, [api, setApi]);

  React.useEffect(() => {
    if (!api) return;
    onSelect(api);
    api.on("reInit", onSelect);
    api.on("select", onSelect);

    return () => {
      api?.off("select", onSelect);
    };
  }, [api, onSelect]);

  return (
    <CarouselContext.Provider
      value={{
        carouselRef,
        api: api,
        opts,
        orientation:
          orientation || (opts?.axis === "y" ? "vertical" : "horizontal"),
        scrollPrev,
        scrollNext,
        canScrollPrev,
        canScrollNext,
      }}
    >
      <div
        // add dir attribute
        dir={isRTL ? "rtl" : "ltr"}
        onKeyDownCapture={handleKeyDown}
        className={cn("relative", className)}
        role="region"
        aria-roledescription="carousel"
        data-slot="carousel"
        {...props}
      >
        {children}
      </div>
    </CarouselContext.Provider>
  );
}

function CarouselContent({ className, ...props }: React.ComponentProps<"div">) {
  const { carouselRef, orientation } = useCarousel();

  return (
    <div
      ref={carouselRef}
      className="overflow-hidden"
      data-slot="carousel-content"
    >
      <div
        className={cn(
          "flex",
          orientation === "horizontal" ? "-ml-4" : "-mt-4 flex-col",
          className
        )}
        {...props}
      />
    </div>
  );
}

function CarouselItem({ className, ...props }: React.ComponentProps<"div">) {
  const { orientation } = useCarousel();

  return (
    <div
      role="group"
      aria-roledescription="slide"
      data-slot="carousel-item"
      className={cn(
        "min-w-0 shrink-0 grow-0 basis-full p-5",
        orientation === "horizontal" ? "pl-4" : "pt-4",
        className
      )}
      {...props}
    />
  );
}

function CarouselPrevious({
  className,
  variant = "outline",
  size = "icon",
  ...props
}: React.ComponentProps<typeof Button>) {
  const { orientation, scrollPrev, canScrollPrev } = useCarousel();

  const locale = useLocale();
  const isRTL = locale === "ar";

  return (
    <Button
      data-slot="carousel-previous"
      variant={variant}
      size={size}
      // edit className for RTL
      className={cn(
        "absolute size-8 rounded-full",
        orientation === "horizontal"
          ? "top-1/2 -left-12 -translate-y-1/2"
          : "-top-12 left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2 rotate-90",
        isRTL ? "-right-12 left-auto rotate-180" : "",
        className
      )}
      disabled={!canScrollPrev}
      onClick={scrollPrev}
      {...props}
    >
      <ArrowLeft />
      <span className="sr-only">Previous slide</span>
    </Button>
  );
}

function CarouselNext({
  className,
  variant = "outline",
  size = "icon",
  ...props
}: React.ComponentProps<typeof Button>) {
  const { orientation, scrollNext, canScrollNext } = useCarousel();

  const locale = useLocale();
  const isRTL = locale === "ar";

  return (
    <Button
      data-slot="carousel-next"
      variant={variant}
      size={size}
      // edit className for RTL
      className={cn(
        "absolute size-8 rounded-full",
        orientation === "horizontal"
          ? "top-1/2 -right-12 -translate-y-1/2"
          : "-bottom-12 left-1/2 -translate-x-1/2 rotate-90",
        isRTL ? "-left-12 right-auto rotate-180" : "",
        className
      )}
      disabled={!canScrollNext}
      onClick={scrollNext}
      {...props}
    >
      <ArrowRight />
      <span className="sr-only">Next slide</span>
    </Button>
  );
}

export {
  type CarouselApi,
  Carousel,
  CarouselContent,
  CarouselItem,
  CarouselPrevious,
  CarouselNext,
};