---
title: Installing Unhead with Vue
description: Learn how to start using Unhead with Vue.
navigation:
title: 'Installation'
---
## Introduction
Unhead has first-class support for Vue. In fact much of the code belongs to the original [@vueuse/head](https://github.com/vueuse/head) repo which was a Vue 3 version of [Vue Meta](https://github.com/nuxt/vue-meta).
Vue Unhead works both for CSR and SSR, and it's designed to be framework-agnostic, so you can use it with any Vue setup.
This guide assumes you're following a similar structure to the [vite-ssr-vue](https://github.com/bluwy/create-vite-extra/tree/master/template-ssr-vue) template
or a SPA Vue setup.
::note
Using [Nuxt](https://nuxt.com/docs/getting-started/seo-meta)? Unhead is already integrated, and you can skip this guide.
::
### Demos
- [StackBlitz - Unhead - Vite + Vue SSR](https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-1ftqrmwn)
- [StackBlitz - Unhead - Vue SPA](https://stackblitz.com/edit/vitejs-vite-9ztda642)
## Setup
### 1. Add Dependency
Install `@unhead/vue`{lang="bash"} dependency to your project.
:ModuleInstall{name="@unhead/vue"}
#### Using Vue 2
In Unhead v2, official support for Vue 2 has been dropped. If you're using Vue 2, you will need to install v1 of `@unhead/vue@^1`{lang="bash"} instead.
:ModuleInstall{name="@unhead/vue@^1"}
To continue, please follow the [v1 Unhead Vue installation](https://v1.unhead.unjs.io/setup/vue/installation).
### 2. Setup Client-Side Rendering
To begin with, we'll import the function to initialize Unhead in our _client_ Vue app from `@unhead/vue/client`{lang="bash"}.
In Vite this entry file is typically named `entry-client.ts`{lang="bash"}. If you're not server-side rendering, you can add this to your main Vue app entry instead.
```ts{3,6-7} [src/entry-client.ts]
import './style.css'
import { createApp } from './main'
import { createHead } from '@unhead/vue/client'
const { app } = createApp()
const head = createHead()
app.use(head)
app.mount('#app')
```
### 3. Setup Server-Side Rendering
::note
Serving your app as an SPA? You can [skip](#4-your-first-tags) this step.
::
Setting up server-side rendering is more complicated as it requires rendering out the tags to the HTML string before sending it to the client.
We'll start with setting up the plugin in the _server_ entry this time. Make sure to import from `@unhead/vue/server`{lang="bash"} instead
and add the `head` in the return object.
```ts {3,7-8,13} [src/entry-server.ts]
import { createHead } from '@unhead/vue/server'
import { renderToString } from 'vue/server-renderer'
import { createApp } from './main'
export async function render(_url: string) {
const { app } = createApp()
const head = createHead()
app.use(head)
const ctx = {}
const html = await renderToString(app, ctx)
return { html, head }
}
```
Now we need to render out the head tags _after_ Vue has rendered the app.
Within your `server.js` file or wherever you're handling the template logic, you need to transform the template data
for the head tags using `transformHtmlTemplate()`{lang="ts"}.
```ts {1,9-14} [server.ts]
import { transformHtmlTemplate } from '@unhead/vue/server'
// ...
// Serve HTML
app.use('*all', async (req, res) => {
try {
// ...
const rendered = await render(url)
const html = await transformHtmlTemplate(
rendered.head,
template.replace(`<!--app-html-->`, rendered.html ?? '')
)
res.status(200).set({ 'Content-Type': 'text/html' }).send(html)
}
catch (e) {
// ...
}
})
// ..
```
### 4. Your First Tags
Done! Your app should now be rendering head tags on the server and client.
To improve your apps stability, Unhead will now insert important default tags for you.
- `<meta charset="utf-8">`
- `<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">`
- `<html lang="en">`
You may need to change these for your app requirements, for example you may want to change the default language. Adding
tags in your server entry means you won't add any weight to your client bundle.
```ts {7-12} [src/entry-server.ts]
import { createHead } from '@unhead/vue/server'
export async function render(_url: string) {
// ...
const head = createHead({
init: [
// change default initial lang
{
title: 'Default title',
titleTemplate: '%s | My Site',
htmlAttrs: { lang: 'fr' }
},
]
})
// ...
}
```
Feel free to play around with adding tags to your apps. Here's an example of adding some styles to the body.
```vue [src/App.vue]
<script setup lang="ts">
import { useHead } from '@unhead/vue'
useHead({
bodyAttrs: {
style: 'background: salmon; color: cyan;'
},
})
</script>
```
### 5. Optional: Auto-Imports
If you're using [unplugin-auto-import](https://github.com/antfu/unplugin-auto-import), you can automatically import the composables.
```ts [vite.config.ts]
import { unheadVueComposablesImports } from '@unhead/vue'
import AutoImport from 'unplugin-auto-import/vite'
export default defineConfig({
plugins: [
AutoImport({
imports: [
unheadVueComposablesImports,
],
}),
// ...
]
})
```
## Next Steps
Your Vue app is now setup for head management, congrats! 🎉
You can get started with any of the composables:
- [`useHead()`{lang="ts"}](/docs/head/api/composables/use-head)
- [`useSeoMeta()`{lang="ts"}](/docs/head/api/composables/use-seo-meta)
Or explore some of the optional extras:
- Add support for the [Options API](/docs/vue/guides/options-api)
- Setup a [`<Head>`{lang="html"} component](/docs/vue/guides/components)
- Add [`useSchemaOrg()`{lang="ts"}](/docs/head/api/composables/use-schema-org) for structured data
- Use [`useScript()`{lang="ts"}](/docs/scripts/introduction) for performance optimized script loading