GSAP with Vue, Svelte, and Other Frameworks

Curated from GreenSock's official GSAP skills: https://github.com/greensock/gsap-skills

When to Use This Skill

Apply when writing or reviewing GSAP code in Vue (or Nuxt), Svelte (or SvelteKit), or other component frameworks that use a lifecycle (mounted/unmounted). For React specifically, use gsap-react (useGSAP hook, gsap.context()).

Related skills: For tweens and timelines use gsap-core and gsap-timeline; for scroll-based animation use gsap-scrolltrigger; for React use gsap-react.

Principles (All Frameworks)

• Create tweens and ScrollTriggers after the component’s DOM is available (e.g. onMounted, onMount).
• Kill or revert them in the unmount (or equivalent) cleanup so nothing runs on detached nodes and there are no leaks.
• Scope selectors to the component root so .box and similar only match elements inside that component, not the rest of the page.

Vue 3 (Composition API)

For a runnable Vite + Vue 3 project demonstrating these patterns, see the upstream example at https://github.com/greensock/gsap-skills/tree/aed9cfd3277740755f6bfc1155c7aa645403b760/examples/vue.

Use onMounted to run GSAP after the component is in the DOM. Use onUnmounted to clean up.

import { onMounted, onUnmounted, ref } from "vue";
import { gsap } from "gsap";
import { ScrollTrigger } from "gsap/ScrollTrigger";
gsap.registerPlugin(ScrollTrigger); // once per app, e.g. in main.js

export default {
  setup() {
    const container = ref(null);
    let ctx;

    onMounted(() => {
      if (!container.value) return;
      ctx = gsap.context(() => {
        gsap.to(".box", { x: 100, duration: 0.6 });
        gsap.from(".item", { autoAlpha: 0, y: 20, stagger: 0.1 });
      }, container.value);
    });

    onUnmounted(() => {
      ctx?.revert();
    });

    return { container };
  },
};

• ✅ gsap.context(scope) — pass the container ref (e.g. container.value) as the second argument so selectors like .item are scoped to that root. All animations and ScrollTriggers created inside the callback are tracked and reverted when ctx.revert() is called.
• ✅ onUnmounted — always call ctx.revert() so tweens and ScrollTriggers are killed and inline styles reverted.

Vue 3 (script setup)

Same idea with <script setup> and refs:

<script setup>
import { onMounted, onUnmounted, ref } from "vue";
import { gsap } from "gsap";
import { ScrollTrigger } from "gsap/ScrollTrigger";

const container = ref(null);
let ctx;

onMounted(() => {
  if (!container.value) return;
  ctx = gsap.context(() => {
    gsap.to(".box", { x: 100 });
    gsap.from(".item", { autoAlpha: 0, stagger: 0.1 });
  }, container.value);
});

onUnmounted(() => {
  ctx?.revert();
});
</script>

<template>
  <div ref="container">
    <div class="box">Box</div>
    <div class="item">Item</div>
  </div>
</template>

Nuxt 4

For a runnable Nuxt 4 project with plugin registration, lazy loading, and SSR-safe patterns, see https://github.com/greensock/gsap-skills/tree/aed9cfd3277740755f6bfc1155c7aa645403b760/examples/nuxt.

Use a reusable composable to register GSAP Plugins and also to lazy load Plugins that are not extensively used in your application:

// composables/useGSAP.ts
import { gsap } from "gsap";
import { ScrollTrigger } from "gsap/ScrollTrigger";

// In order to dynamically load all the GSAP plugins
const pluginMap = {
  CustomEase: () => import("gsap/CustomEase"),
  Draggable: () => import("gsap/Draggable"),
  CSSRulePlugin: () => import("gsap/CSSRulePlugin"),
  EaselPlugin: () => import("gsap/EaselPlugin"),
  EasePack: () => import("gsap/EasePack"),
  Flip: () => import("gsap/Flip"),
  MotionPathPlugin: () => import("gsap/MotionPathPlugin"),
  Observer: () => import("gsap/Observer"),
  PixiPlugin: () => import("gsap/PixiPlugin"),
  ScrollToPlugin: () => import("gsap/ScrollToPlugin"),
  ScrollTrigger: () => import("gsap/ScrollTrigger"),
  TextPlugin: () => import("gsap/TextPlugin"),
  DrawSVGPlugin: () => import("gsap/DrawSVGPlugin"),
  Physics2DPlugin: () => import("gsap/Physics2DPlugin"),
  PhysicsPropsPlugin: () => import("gsap/PhysicsPropsPlugin"),
  ScrambleTextPlugin: () => import("gsap/ScrambleTextPlugin"),
  CustomBounce: () => import("gsap/CustomBounce"),
  CustomWiggle: () => import("gsap/CustomWiggle"),
  GSDevTools: () => import("gsap/GSDevTools"),

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