index.md

---
title: ShadowRoot
slug: Web/API/ShadowRoot
page-type: web-api-interface
browser-compat: api.ShadowRoot
---

{{APIRef('Shadow DOM')}}

The **`ShadowRoot`** interface of the Shadow DOM API is the root node of a DOM subtree that is rendered separately from a document's main DOM tree.

You can retrieve a reference to an element's shadow root using its {{domxref("Element.shadowRoot")}} property, provided it was created using {{domxref("Element.attachShadow()")}} with the `mode` option set to `open`.

{{InheritanceDiagram}}

## Instance properties

- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.activeElement")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : Returns the {{domxref('Element')}} within the shadow tree that has focus.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.adoptedStyleSheets")}}
  - : Add an array of constructed stylesheets to be used by the shadow DOM subtree.
    These may be shared with other DOM subtrees that share the same parent {{domxref("Document")}} node, and the document itself.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.clonable")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : A boolean that indicates whether the shadow root is clonable.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.delegatesFocus")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : A boolean that indicates whether the shadow root delegates focus if a non-focusable node is selected.
- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.fullscreenElement")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : The element that's currently in full screen mode for this shadow tree.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.host")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : Returns a reference to the DOM element the `ShadowRoot` is attached to.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.innerHTML")}}
  - : Sets or returns a reference to the DOM tree inside the `ShadowRoot`.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.mode")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : The mode of the `ShadowRoot`, either `open` or `closed`.
    This defines whether or not the shadow root's internal features are accessible from JavaScript.
- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.pictureInPictureElement")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : Returns the {{DOMxRef('Element')}} within the shadow tree that is currently being presented in picture-in-picture mode.
- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.pointerLockElement")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : Returns the {{DOMxRef('Element')}} set as the target for mouse events while the pointer is locked.
    `null` if lock is pending, pointer is unlocked, or if the target is in another tree.
- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.serializable")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : A boolean that indicates whether the shadow root is serializable.
    A serializable shadow root inside an element will be serialized by {{DOMxRef('Element.getHTML()')}} or {{DOMxRef('ShadowRoot.getHTML()')}} when its [`options.serializableShadowRoots`](/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/getHTML#serializableshadowroots) parameter is set `true`.
    This is set when the shadow root is created.
- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.slotAssignment")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : Returns a string containing the type of slot assignment, either `manual` or `named`.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.styleSheets")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
  - : Returns a {{domxref('StyleSheetList')}} of {{domxref('CSSStyleSheet')}} objects for stylesheets explicitly linked into, or embedded in a shadow tree.

## Instance methods

- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.getAnimations()")}}
  - : Returns an array of all {{DOMxRef("Animation")}} objects currently in effect, whose target elements are descendants of the shadow tree.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.getSelection()")}} {{Non-standard_Inline}}
  - : Returns a {{domxref('Selection')}} object representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.elementFromPoint()")}} {{Non-standard_Inline}}
  - : Returns the topmost element at the specified coordinates.
- {{domxref("ShadowRoot.elementsFromPoint()")}} {{Non-standard_Inline}}
  - : Returns an array of all elements at the specified coordinates.
- {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot.setHTMLUnsafe()")}}
  - : Parses a string of HTML into a document fragment, without sanitization, which then replaces the shadowroot's original subtree. The HTML string may include declarative shadow roots, which would be parsed as template elements the HTML was set using [`ShadowRoot.innerHTML`](#shadowroot.innerhtml).

## Events

The following events are available to `ShadowRoot` via event bubbling from {{domxref("HTMLSlotElement")}}:

- `HTMLSlotElement` {{domxref("HTMLSlotElement.slotchange_event", "slotchange")}} event
  - : An event fired when the node(s) contained in that slot change.

## Examples

The following snippets are taken from our [life-cycle-callbacks](https://github.com/mdn/web-components-examples/tree/main/life-cycle-callbacks) example ([see it live also](https://mdn.github.io/web-components-examples/life-cycle-callbacks/)), which creates an element that displays a square of a size and color specified in the element's attributes.

Inside the `<custom-square>` element's class definition we include some life cycle callbacks that make a call to an external function, `updateStyle()`, which actually applies the size and color to the element. You'll see that we are passing it `this` (the custom element itself) as a parameter.

```js
connectedCallback() {
  console.log('Custom square element added to page.');
  updateStyle(this);
}

attributeChangedCallback(name, oldValue, newValue) {
  console.log('Custom square element attributes changed.');
  updateStyle(this);
}
```

In the `updateStyle()` function itself, we get a reference to the shadow DOM using {{domxref("Element.shadowRoot")}}.
From here we use standard DOM traversal techniques to find the {{htmlelement("style")}} element inside the shadow DOM and then update the CSS found inside it:

```js
function updateStyle(elem) {
  const shadow = elem.shadowRoot;
  const childNodes = shadow.childNodes;
  for (const node of childNodes) {
    if (node.nodeName === "STYLE") {
      node.textContent = `
div {
  width: ${elem.getAttribute("l")}px;
  height: ${elem.getAttribute("l")}px;
  background-color: ${elem.getAttribute("c")};
}
      `;
    }
  }
}
```

## Specifications

{{Specifications}}

## Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}