How to Use Conditional Menu Items in WordPress

What Are Conditional Menu Items?

Conditional Menu Items is a Classic Monks feature that adds visibility rules to individual menu items in the WordPress menu editor. Once enabled, every menu item gains a “Conditions” panel where you can set rules like “show only to logged-in users”, “hide on mobile”, or “show only on the Shop page”.

The rules are evaluated on the frontend, so the navigation adapts dynamically to the visitor’s role, device, and current page.

Why You Need It

Most sites have navigation that should differ by audience:

• B2B sites: Show “Client Portal” only to logged-in users, hide it from visitors
• E-commerce: Show “My Account” only to logged-in customers, “Login” only to logged-out visitors
• Mobile vs desktop: Show “Call Us” only on mobile, “Live Chat” only on desktop
• Member sites: Show member-only pages in the nav only to members

Without Conditional Menu Items, the only options are creating multiple nav menus and switching between them (which is hard to maintain) or using CSS to hide items (which is fragile and does not help with accessibility or SEO).

How to Use Conditional Menu Items in WordPress

Step 1: Navigate to Settings

Click into the Classic Monks plugin settings in your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Go to the Content Subtab

Click on the Core menu, then click the Content subtab.

Step 3: Enable Conditional Menu Items

In the Query & Routing Hooks category, toggle on Conditional Menu Items. The toggle is labeled “Control visibility of menu items based on user roles, device type, page context, and more with advanced AND/OR logic.”

Step 4: Save Changes

Click Save Changes.

Step 5: Open the WordPress Menu Editor

Go to Appearance > Menus in the WordPress admin. Select the menu you want to add conditions to, or create a new one.

Step 6: Add a Menu Item

Add any menu item (page, post, custom link, category). The standard WordPress menu item panel appears with a new Conditions section.

Step 7: Choose Show or Hide

In the Conditions section, use the Show when / Hide when select to set the base behavior. Show when displays the item when the conditions match; Hide when hides it when the conditions match.

Step 8: Choose How Groups Combine

Use the ANY group matches (OR logic) or ALL groups match (AND logic) select to decide how condition groups combine.

Step 9: Add Conditions

Under each condition group, tick the checkboxes for the conditions you want. Conditions are grouped by category (general, user role, device, page type, and more). Each group can use its own OR or AND logic.

Step 10: Add More Groups (Optional)

Click Add condition group to create additional groups. Each group can hold a different set of conditions.

Step 11: Save the Menu

Click Save Menu. The conditions are now active.

Available Condition Types

Conditions are grouped into categories in the menu editor. The categories and their conditions are:

General

Condition	Description
User is logged in	Show when the visitor is authenticated
User is logged out	Show when the visitor is anonymous

User Role

Condition	Description
Role: Administrator	Show when the visitor has the Administrator role
Role: Editor	Show when the visitor has the Editor role
Role: Author	Show when the visitor has the Author role
Role: Contributor	Show when the visitor has the Contributor role
Role: Subscriber	Show when the visitor has the Subscriber role

A “Role: ” condition is generated for every role on the site, including custom roles.

Device

Condition	Description
Mobile Device	Show on mobile devices (uses WordPress mobile detection)
Desktop	Show on desktop devices

Page Type

Condition	Description
Front Page	Show on the site front page
Blog Page	Show on the blog posts index
Single Post	Show on single post pages
Any Page	Show on any singular page
Archive Page	Show on archive pages
Search Results	Show on search results pages
404 Error Page	Show on the 404 page

Custom Post Types

A “Single ” and ” Archive” condition is generated for every public custom post type. For example, a Portfolio post type adds “Single Portfolio” and “Portfolio Archive”.

Taxonomies

A ” Archive” condition is generated for every public taxonomy. For example, a Category taxonomy adds “Category Archive”, and a Tag taxonomy adds “Tag Archive”.

WooCommerce (when WooCommerce is active)

Condition	Description
Shop Page	Show on the WooCommerce shop page
Product Page	Show on a single product page
Product Category	Show on a product category archive
Product Tag	Show on a product tag archive
Cart Page	Show on the cart page
Checkout Page	Show on the checkout page
My Account Page	Show on the My Account page
Has Products in Cart	Show when the cart has at least one product
Cart is Empty	Show when the cart is empty
Customer Has Purchased	Show when the logged-in customer has placed at least one order

Configuration Options

Option	Description	Default
Conditional Menu Items	Master toggle. Adds the Conditions panel to every menu item.	Off

Per-menu-item configuration happens in the WordPress menu editor, not in the Classic Monks settings.

Advanced Options (Developers)

Conditions are registered on the init hook and filtered on the frontend through wp_get_nav_menu_items. The following filter is available to register custom condition types:

// Add a custom condition type
add_filter( 'cm_conditional_menu_conditions', function( $conditions ) {
    $conditions['user_has_subscription'] = array(
        'name'      => 'User has active subscription',
        'callback'  => function() {
            $user = wp_get_current_user();
            return (bool) get_user_meta( $user->ID, '_active_subscription', true );
        },
    );
    return $conditions;
} );

• init calls register_conditions() (registers all built-in condition types and fires the cm_conditional_menu_conditions filter)
• wp_get_nav_menu_items calls filter_menu_items() (applies the conditions to each menu item on the frontend)
• wp_nav_menu_item_custom_fields calls render_menu_item_options() (renders the Conditions panel in the menu editor)
• wp_update_nav_menu_item calls save_menu_item_options() (saves the condition data to post meta)

The frontend result is cached for 5 minutes per menu and arguments using the WordPress object cache, so heavy condition evaluation is not repeated on every request.

The cm_conditional_menu_conditions filter lets you register custom condition types with callbacks. Each condition is an array with a name and a callback that returns a boolean. Condition data is stored per menu item in the _cm_menu_item_condition post meta field.