Amunet is a free Drupal sub-theme with an invisible vertical menu — a drawer that opens from a button on the left, with a search icon on the right, so nothing but content occupies the page until a visitor asks for navigation. Like its sibling Amun, its .info.yml declares base theme: drupal8_w3css_theme and core_version_requirement: ^9 || ^10 || ^11 || ^12 — it builds on W3CSS Theme, not on Solo.
Where an invisible menu earns its place
Named for one of the Egyptian creation goddesses — the deity-naming pattern runs across this project's sub-themes — Amunet trades permanently visible navigation for screen space. The menu button and search icon sit quietly at the edges; the primary menu itself does not render until a visitor opens it. For a portfolio, a photography site, a landing page built around imagery, or any page where the content should own the full viewport, that trade is the right one: nothing competes with what you are showing.
It is the wrong choice for a site whose visitors need to jump between sections constantly, or whose navigation itself needs to be self-evident to a first-time visitor without a click — a support knowledge base or a large e-commerce category structure will fight the hidden-menu pattern rather than benefit from it. That is what a sticky, always-visible menu is for, which is exactly what Amun and Anhur provide instead.
Facts, read from the source
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Base theme | drupal8_w3css_theme — a sub-theme of W3CSS Theme, not Solo |
| Drupal core | ^9 || ^10 || ^11 || ^12 |
| Composer package | drupal/amunet-amunet |
| Composer dependency | drupal/d8w3css: >=2.0 |
| Declared regions | 23, counted directly from the regions: block — identical in name and count to Amun's |
Amun and Amunet declare exactly the same 23 region keys. The difference between them is not in what you can place — it is in how the primary menu and search icon behave once you place them, which is markup and JavaScript, not regions.
How the drawer behaves
The fixed_search_bar region carries both the menu-toggle button and the search icon. Clicking the menu button slides the primary menu into view from the left as an overlay; clicking the search icon reveals a sticky search field at the top. Neither is present in the page's normal flow until a visitor asks for it — which is also why this pattern costs nothing in layout stability: there is no reserved menu bar height pushing your header down.
Installation
composer require drupal/amunet-amunetEnable it and set it as the default theme:
drush theme:enable amunet
drush config:set system.theme default amunet -y
drush crComposer pulls in drupal/d8w3css automatically through the dependency declared above, if it is not already present.
Configuration
- Menu drawer
- Theme settings control the toggle icon and the drawer's slide-in behaviour.
- Search icon
- Positioned on the right of the same fixed bar as the menu toggle; enabling it reveals a sticky search field on click.
- Header
- Renders normally — no reserved space is held for a menu bar, since the menu lives off-canvas until opened.
- Everything else
- Colour scheme, fonts, container widths and the top/bottom/footer region groups are the ones documented on the W3CSS Theme page — Amunet inherits them unchanged.
A starter sub-theme of its own
The project also ships amunet_subtheme, a blank theme with no navigation behaviour of its own, for cloning when you want Amunet's drawer pattern as a starting point but need markup changes theme settings cannot reach. Needs checking: its own .info.yml declares core_version_requirement: ^8 || ^9 || ^10 || ^11 || ^12, wider than Amunet's ^9 floor. That is most likely a stale field on a scaffold that is rarely touched rather than a tested Drupal 8 support claim — I have not run it against a Drupal 8 site to confirm either way.
Amun, Amunet, or Anhur?
All three share the base theme, the 23 regions and the core support string. Pick by how visible you want navigation to be, from most to least:
| Theme | Menu behaviour |
|---|---|
| Anhur | Fixed vertical menu, always visible on the left |
| Amun | Sticky horizontal bar on top: main menu, user menu, search icon |
| Amunet | Invisible vertical menu, opened from a button on the left |
Common questions
Is Amunet a sub-theme of Solo?
No. Its .info.yml declares base theme: drupal8_w3css_theme. It builds on W3CSS Theme, the same as Amun and Anhur.
Is the menu hard to find for a first-time visitor?
It is less discoverable than a permanently visible menu by design — that is the trade this theme makes for open screen space. If discoverability matters more than that trade for your content, Amun or Anhur keep the menu visible at all times.
Does the hidden menu affect accessibility?
A hidden menu still needs to be keyboard-reachable and announced correctly when opened; that is a theme-settings and testing concern on any site, not something this page verifies for you. Test the toggle with a keyboard and a screen reader before launch, the same as any off-canvas navigation pattern.
Will Amunet work on Drupal 12?
Yes, it declares ^9 || ^10 || ^11 || ^12, the same as its base theme.
Need a Drupal theme built around minimal chrome?
Amunet is free and GPL-licensed. If your content needs the full screen and an off-canvas menu is the right call, but you need it adapted beyond theme settings, that is sub-theme work I do.
See what a Drupal themer actually does, read about my Drupal services, or get in touch.
