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admin-panel-customization
admin-panel-customization
Type
External
Status
Published
Created
Mar 5, 2026
Updated
Mar 6, 2026
Updated by
Dosu Bot

import HotReloading from '/docs/snippets/hot-reloading-admin-panel.md'

Admin panel customization#

The admin panel can be tailored to match your branding, by editing `src/admin/app` and using an `extensions` folder to swap logos, favicon, locales, translations, themes, bundlers, or editors.

The front-end part of Strapi For a clarification on the distinction between:

  • the Strapi admin panel (front end of Strapi),
  • the Strapi server (back end of Strapi),
  • and the end-user-facing front end of a Strapi-powered application,
refer to the development introduction. is called the admin panel. The admin panel presents a graphical user interface to help you structure and manage the content that will be accessible through the Content API. To get an overview of the admin panel, please refer to the Getting Started > Admin panel page.

From a developer point of view, Strapi's admin panel is a React-based single-page application that encapsulates all the features and installed plugins of a Strapi application.

Admin panel customization is done by tweaking the code of the src/admin/app file or other files included in the src/admin folder (see project structure). By doing so, you can:

  • Customize some parts of the admin panel to better reflect your brand identity (logos, favicon) or your language,
  • Replace some other parts of the admin panel, such as the Rich text editor and the bundler,
  • Extend the theme or the admin panel to add new features or customize the existing user interface.

:::strapi Plugins and Admin Panel API
In addition to supported customizations detailed in this section, you can go further and create plugins that tap into the Admin Panel API.
:::

General considerations#

Before updating code to customize the admin panel:

  • Rename the default app.example.tsx|js file into app.ts|js.
  • Create a new extensions folder in /src/admin/.
  • If you want to see your changes applied live while developing, ensure the admin panel server is running (it's usually done with the yarn develop or npm run develop command if you have not changed the default host, port, and path of the admin panel).

Most basic admin panel customizations will be done in the /src/admin/app file, which includes a config object.

Any file used by the config object (e.g., a custom logo) should be placed in a /src/admin/extensions/ folder and imported inside /src/admin/app.js.

Before deployment, the admin panel needs to be built, by running the following command from the project's root directory:

yarn build
npm run build

This will replace the folder's content located at ./build. Visit to make sure customizations have been taken into account.

:::note Note: Admin panel extensions vs. plugins extensions
By default, Strapi projects already contain another extensions folder in /src but it is for plugins extensions only (see Plugins extension).
:::

Available customizations#

The config object of /src/admin/app accepts the following parameters:

ParameterTypeDescription
authObjectAccepts a logo key to replace the default Strapi logo on login screen
headObjectAccepts a favicon key to replace the default Strapi favicon
localesArray of StringsDefines availables locales
translationsObjectExtends the translations
menuObjectAccepts the logo key to change the logo in the main navigation
theme.light and theme.darkObjectOverwrite theme properties for light and dark modes
tutorialsBooleanToggles displaying the video tutorials
notificationsObjectAccepts the releases key (Boolean) to toggle displaying notifications about new releases

Click on any of the following cards to get more details about a specific topic:

Basic example#

The following is an example of a basic customization of the admin panel:

import AuthLogo from "./extensions/my-logo.png";
import MenuLogo from "./extensions/logo.png";
import favicon from "./extensions/favicon.png";

export default {
  config: {
    // Replace the Strapi logo in auth (login) views
    auth: {
      logo: AuthLogo,
    },
    // Replace the favicon
    head: {
      favicon: favicon,
    },
    // Add a new locale, other than 'en'
    locales: ["fr", "de"],
    // Replace the Strapi logo in the main navigation
    menu: {
      logo: MenuLogo,
    },
    // Override or extend the theme
    theme: {
      // overwrite light theme properties
      light: {
        colors: {
          primary100: "#f6ecfc",
          primary200: "#e0c1f4",
          primary500: "#ac73e6",
          primary600: "#9736e8",
          primary700: "#8312d1",
          danger700: "#b72b1a",
        },
      },

      // overwrite dark theme properties
      dark: {
        // ...
      },
    },
    // Extend the translations
    translations: {
      fr: {
        "Auth.form.email.label": "test",
        Users: "Utilisateurs",
        City: "CITY (FRENCH)",
        // Customize the label of the Content Manager table.
        Id: "ID french",
      },
    },
    // Disable video tutorials
    tutorials: false,
    // Disable notifications about new Strapi releases
    notifications: { releases: false },
  },

  bootstrap() {},
};
// Note: you may see some ts errors, don't worry about them
import AuthLogo from "./extensions/my-logo.png";
import MenuLogo from "./extensions/logo.png";
import favicon from "./extensions/favicon.png";

export default {
  config: {
    // Replace the Strapi logo in auth (login) views
    auth: {
      logo: AuthLogo,
    },
    // Replace the favicon
    head: {
      // Try to change the origin favicon.png file in the
      // root of strapi project if this config don't work.
      favicon: favicon, 
    },
    // Add a new locale, other than 'en'
    locales: ["fr", "de"],
    // Replace the Strapi logo in the main navigation
    menu: {
      logo: MenuLogo,
    },
    // Override or extend the theme
    theme: {
	    dark:{
	      colors: {
			  alternative100: '#f6ecfc',
			  alternative200: '#e0c1f4',
			  alternative500: '#ac73e6',
			  alternative600: '#9736e8',
			  alternative700: '#8312d1',
			  buttonNeutral0: '#ffffff',
			  buttonPrimary500: '#7b79ff',
			  // you can see other colors in the link below
			  },
		},
		light:{
			// you can see the light color here just like dark colors https://github.com/strapi/design-system/blob/main/packages/design-system/src/themes/lightTheme/light-colors.ts
		},
  },
    },
    // Extend the translations
    // you can see the traslations keys here https://github.com/strapi/strapi/blob/develop/packages/core/admin/admin/src/translations
    translations: {
      fr: {
        "Auth.form.email.label": "test",
        Users: "Utilisateurs",
        City: "CITY (FRENCH)",
        // Customize the label of the Content Manager table.
        Id: "ID french",
      },
    },
    // Disable video tutorials
    tutorials: false,
    // Disable notifications about new Strapi releases
    notifications: { releases: false },
  },

  bootstrap() {},
};

:::strapi Detailed examples in the codebase

  • You can see the full translation keys, for instance to change the welcome message, on GitHub.
  • Light and dark colors are also found on GitHub.
    :::