Custom edges

Like custom nodes, parts of a custom edge in React Flow are just React components: that means you can render anything you want along an edge! This guide shows you how to implement a custom edge with some additional controls.

A basic custom edge

An edge isn’t much use to us if it doesn’t render a path between two connected nodes. These paths are always SVG-based and are typically rendered using the <BaseEdge /> component. To calculate the actual SVG path to render, React Flow comes with some handy utility functions:

• getBezierPath
• getSimpleBezierPath
• getSmoothStepPath
• getStraightPath

To kick start our custom edge, we’ll just render a straight path between the source and target.

import { BaseEdge, getStraightPath } from '@xyflow/react';
 
export default function CustomEdge({ id, sourceX, sourceY, targetX, targetY }) {
  const [edgePath] = getStraightPath({
    sourceX,
    sourceY,
    targetX,
    targetY,
  });
 
  return (
    <>
      <BaseEdge id={id} path={edgePath} />
    </>
  );
}

This gives us a straight edge that behaves the same as the default "straight" edge type. To use it, we also need to update the edgeTypes prop on the <ReactFlow /> component.

It’s important to define the edgeTypes object outside of the component or to use React’s useMemo hook to prevent unnecessary re-renders. React Flow will show a warning in the console if you forget to do this.

import ReactFlow from '@xyflow/react'
import CustomEdge from './CustomEdge'
 
 
const edgeTypes = {
  'custom-edge': CustomEdge
}
 
export function Flow() {
  return <ReactFlow edgeTypes={edgeTypes} ... />
}

After defining the edgeTypes object, we can use our new custom edge by setting the type field of an edge to "custom-edge".

import { useCallback } from 'react';
import {
  ReactFlow,
  addEdge,
  useNodesState,
  useEdgesState,
} from '@xyflow/react';
import CustomEdge from './CustomEdge';
 
import '@xyflow/react/dist/style.css';
 
const initialNodes = [
  { id: 'a', position: { x: 0, y: 0 }, data: { label: 'Node A' } },
  { id: 'b', position: { x: 0, y: 100 }, data: { label: 'Node B' } },
];
 
const initialEdges = [
  { id: 'a->b', type: 'custom-edge', source: 'a', target: 'b' },
];
 
const edgeTypes = {
  'custom-edge': CustomEdge,
};
 
function Flow() {
  const [nodes, setNodes, onNodesChange] = useNodesState(initialNodes);
  const [edges, setEdges, onEdgesChange] = useEdgesState(initialEdges);
  const onConnect = useCallback(
    (connection) => {
      const edge = { ...connection, type: 'custom-edge' };
      setEdges((eds) => addEdge(edge, eds));
    },
    [setEdges],
  );
 
  return (
    <ReactFlow
      nodes={nodes}
      edges={edges}
      onNodesChange={onNodesChange}
      onEdgesChange={onEdgesChange}
      onConnect={onConnect}
      edgeTypes={edgeTypes}
      fitView
    />
  );
}
 
export default Flow;

Adding an edge label

One of the more common uses for custom edges is rendering some controls or info along an edge’s path. In React Flow we call that an edge label and unlike the edge path, edge labels can be any React component!

To render a custom edge label we must wrap it in the <EdgeLabelRenderer /> component. This is necessary for performance reasons: the edge label renderer is a portal to a single container that all edge labels are rendered into.

Let’s add a button to our custom edge that can be used to delete the edge it’s attached to:

import {
  BaseEdge,
  EdgeLabelRenderer,
  getStraightPath,
  useReactFlow,
} from '@xyflow/react';
 
export default function CustomEdge({ id, sourceX, sourceY, targetX, targetY }) {
  const { setEdges } = useReactFlow();
  const [edgePath] = getStraightPath({
    sourceX,
    sourceY,
    targetX,
    targetY,
  });
 
  return (
    <>
      <BaseEdge id={id} path={edgePath} />
      <EdgeLabelRenderer>
        <button
          onClick={() => setEdges((edges) => edges.filter((e) => e.id !== id))}
        >
          delete
        </button>
      </EdgeLabelRenderer>
    </>
  );
}

If we try to use this edge now, we’ll see that the button is rendered in the centre of the flow (it might be hidden behind “Node A”). Because of the edge label portal, we’ll need to do some extra work to position the button ourselves.

Fortunately, the path utils we’ve already seen can help us with this! Along with the SVG path to render, these functions also return the x and y coordinates of the path’s midpoint. We can then use these coordinates to translate our custom edge label’s into the right position!

export default function CustomEdge({ id, sourceX, sourceY, targetX, targetY }) {
  const { setEdges } = useReactFlow();
  const [edgePath, labelX, labelY] = getStraightPath({ ... });
 
  return (
    ...
        <button
          style={{
            position: 'absolute',
            transform: `translate(-50%, -50%) translate(${labelX}px, ${labelY}px)`,
            pointerEvents: 'all',
          }}
          className="nodrag nopan"
          onClick={() => {
            setEdges((es) => es.filter((e) => e.id !== id));
          }}
        >
    ...
  );
}

Here’s an interactive example with our updated custom edge. Clicking the delete button will remove that edge from the flow. Creating a new edge will use the custom node.

import { useCallback } from 'react';
import {
  ReactFlow,
  addEdge,
  useNodesState,
  useEdgesState,
} from '@xyflow/react';
import CustomEdge from './CustomEdge';
 
import '@xyflow/react/dist/style.css';
 
const initialNodes = [
  { id: 'a', position: { x: 0, y: 0 }, data: { label: 'Node A' } },
  { id: 'b', position: { x: 0, y: 100 }, data: { label: 'Node B' } },
  { id: 'c', position: { x: 0, y: 200 }, data: { label: 'Node C' } },
];
 
const initialEdges = [
  { id: 'a->b', type: 'custom-edge', source: 'a', target: 'b' },
  { id: 'b->c', type: 'custom-edge', source: 'b', target: 'c' },
];
 
const edgeTypes = {
  'custom-edge': CustomEdge,
};
 
function Flow() {
  const [nodes, setNodes, onNodesChange] = useNodesState(initialNodes);
  const [edges, setEdges, onEdgesChange] = useEdgesState(initialEdges);
  const onConnect = useCallback(
    (connection) => {
      const edge = { ...connection, type: 'custom-edge' };
      setEdges((eds) => addEdge(edge, eds));
    },
    [setEdges],
  );
 
  return (
    <ReactFlow
      nodes={nodes}
      edges={edges}
      onNodesChange={onNodesChange}
      onEdgesChange={onEdgesChange}
      onConnect={onConnect}
      edgeTypes={edgeTypes}
      fitView
    />
  );
}
 
export default Flow;

Making Custom SVG Edge Paths

As discussed previously, if you want to make a custom edge in React Flow, you have to use either of the four path creation functions discussed above (e.g getBezierPath). However if you want to make some other path shape like a Sinusoidal edge or some other edge type then you will have to make the edge path yourself.

The edge path we get from functions like getBezierPath is just a path string which we pass into the path prop of the <BaseEdge /> component. It contains the necessary information needed in order to draw that path, like where it should start from, where it should curve, where it should end, etc. A simple straight path string between two points (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) would look like:

M x1 y1 L x2 y2

An SVG path is a concatenated list of commands like M, L, Q, etc, along with their values. Some of these commands are listed below, along with their supported values.

• M x1 y1 is the Move To command which moves the current point to the x1, y1 coordinate.
• L x1 y1 is the Line To command which draws a line from the current point to x1, y1 coordinate.
• Q x1 y1 x2 y2 is the Quadratic Bezier Curve command which draws a bezier curve from the current point to the x2, y2 coordinate. x1, y1 is the control point of the curve which determines the curviness of the curve.

Whenever we want to start a path for our custom edge, we use the M command to move our current point to sourceX, sourceY which we get as props in the custom edge component. Then based on the shape we want, we will use other commands like L(to make lines), Q(to make curves) and then finally end our path at targetX, targetY which we get as props in the custom edge component.

If you want to learn more about SVG paths, you can check out SVG-Path-Editor. You can paste any SVG path there and analyze individual path commands via an intuitive UI.

Here is an example with two types of custom edge paths, a Step edge and a Sinusoidal edge. You should look at the Step edge first to get your hands dirty with custom SVG paths since it’s simple, and then look at how the Sinusoidal edge is made. After going through this example, you will have the necessary knowledge to make custom SVG paths for your custom edges.

import { ReactFlow } from '@xyflow/react';
import StepEdge from './StepEdge';
import SineEdge from './SineEdge';
 
import '@xyflow/react/dist/style.css';
 
const initialNodes = [
  { id: 'a', position: { x: 0, y: 0 }, data: { label: 'Node A' } },
  { id: 'b', position: { x: 200, y: 100 }, data: { label: 'Node B' } },
  { id: 'c', position: { x: 0, y: 200 }, data: { label: 'Node C' } },
  { id: 'd', position: { x: 200, y: 300 }, data: { label: 'Node D' } },
];
 
const initialEdges = [
  { id: 'a->b', type: 'step', source: 'a', target: 'b' },
  { id: 'c->d', type: 'sine', source: 'c', target: 'd' },
];
 
const edgeTypes = {
  step: StepEdge,
  sine: SineEdge,
};
 
function Flow() {
  return (
    <ReactFlow
      defaultNodes={initialNodes}
      defaultEdges={initialEdges}
      edgeTypes={edgeTypes}
      fitView
    />
  );
}
 
export default Flow;