Directus is very good at storing images and very quiet about showing them. Attach a Files field to a collection, link twenty product photos to a record, and the edit form gives you twenty file cards. To check whether photo fourteen is the right one, you open it, close it, and open the next.
For a team reviewing product galleries, property listings or press photos every day, that is the whole job — and it is slower than it needs to be.
Why the built-in Files interface is not a gallery
The standard Files (many-to-many) interface is built for managing the relation: which files are attached, in what order. It is not built for looking at the images. There is no next button, no full-screen view, and no way to compare one photo against the next without leaving the form.
That is a reasonable default. A CMS should not assume every file field is a photo gallery. But when yours is, the gap is felt on every single record.
An image carousel interface for Directus
We built Directus Image Carousel, a free open-source interface that renders the images already linked to a record as a carousel — inside the item form, with no change to your data model.
- A real gallery — previous/next navigation, an image counter, optional dot indicators and a thumbnail strip that scrolls the active image into view.
- Full screen — press
F, double-click, or use the expand button to open a lightbox that fills the screen. - Zoom and pan — scroll to zoom toward the cursor and drag to pan, so you can check a label, a seam or a watermark without downloading the original.
- Keyboard and touch — arrow keys to move,
Escto close, swipe on touch and pen. - Editorial options — fade, slide or no transition, optional looping, captions from the file title, and autoplay that pauses on hover.
Neighbouring images are preloaded, so paging through a gallery does not flash white between slides.
It does not touch your data
This matters more than the features. The carousel is presentational: it reads the many-to-many relation to directus_files that the field wizard already created, respects the junction table's sort field, and writes nothing. Files you have just uploaded but not yet saved appear alongside the saved ones.
Because it only reads, adding or removing images stays with the standard Files interface — keep that on the same collection in another tab or detail group. Non-image files linked to the same field are skipped rather than rendered as broken frames.
Configuration
Everything is a field option, so different collections can behave differently: aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, 21:9), contain or cover fit, transition style, looping, thumbnails, dots, counter, captions, full screen, zoom, and autoplay with a configurable interval. It honours prefers-reduced-motion, so animation stops for users who have asked for that at the OS level.
Installing it
Open Settings → Marketplace in Directus, search for @contensu/directus-extension-image-carousel-interface, and press Install. Directus unpacks the extension and reloads on its own. Then create or edit a Files field and pick Image Carousel as its interface.
Frequently asked questions
Does Directus have a built-in image gallery or carousel?
No. The standard Files interface lists linked images as file cards. You can open one at a time in the file detail drawer, but there is no gallery view that lets you page through them inside the item form.
Does the carousel change how images are stored?
No. It is a presentational interface over the existing many-to-many relation to directus_files. The junction table, the sort order and the files themselves are untouched, so you can switch back to the standard Files interface at any time.
Can editors still add or remove images?
Not from the carousel itself — it is deliberately read-only so it cannot corrupt the relation. Keep the standard Files interface on the same collection, in another tab or detail group, for managing which files are attached.
Does it work before the item is saved?
Yes. Files you have just selected or uploaded are shown alongside already-saved ones, so you can review a gallery before the first save.
The extension is MIT-licensed and free. If it is missing something your team needs, the issue tracker is open.
Not finding what you need?
Every business is different. Tell us about your specific challenges and we will give you honest advice on the best approach — whether that is custom software or a better off-the-shelf tool.
Tell us what you need →