Tokens

Tokens are design primitives (colors, spacing, etc.) exposed as CSS custom properties. They keep your styles consistent and make theming straightforward.

Creating tokens

Use tokens.create(prefix, object) to define a set of tokens:

import { tokens } from 'typestyles';

const space = tokens.create('space', {
  xs: '4px',
  sm: '8px',
  md: '16px',
  lg: '24px',
});

const color = tokens.create('color', {
  primary: '#0066ff',
  text: '#111827',
  border: '#e5e7eb',
});

Each value becomes a CSS custom property: --space-xs, --color-primary. The create function returns an object of the same shape whose values are var(--prefix-key) so you can use them in styles:

padding: space.md,        // var(--space-md)
backgroundColor: color.primary,  // var(--color-primary)

Referencing tokens defined elsewhere

When tokens are created in another module or package, use tokens.use(namespace) to get the same var(--namespace-key) references without emitting another :root rule. The namespace must already be registered (via tokens.create) before those variables exist in CSS.

Theming

Use tokens.createTheme(name, config) to register a theme surface: a class theme-{name} whose custom properties override token values for that subtree.

• base — Overrides always applied on the surface (typical light / default brand).
• modes — Extra layers with explicit tokens.when.* conditions.
• colorMode — Preset layers from tokens.colorMode.* (mutually exclusive with modes).

const dark = tokens.createTheme('dark', {
  base: {
    color: {
      primary: '#66b3ff',
      text: '#e0e0e0',
      surface: '#1a1a2e',
    },
  },
});

createTheme returns a ThemeSurface (className, name, string coercion). Pass dark.className to DOM or React className props, or use String(dark) / `${dark}` in templates.

document.body.classList.add(dark.className);

Shorthand — dark under prefers-color-scheme only:

const autoDark = tokens.createDarkMode('app', {
  color: { text: '#e5e7eb', surface: '#0f172a' },
});

Preset — system + data-color-mode toggle:

const light = { color: { text: '#111', surface: '#fff' } };
const dark = { color: { text: '#eee', surface: '#111' } };

const shell = tokens.createTheme('shell', {
  base: light,
  colorMode: tokens.colorMode.systemWithLightDarkOverride({
    attribute: 'data-color-mode',
    values: { light: 'light', dark: 'dark', system: 'system' },
    scope: 'ancestor',
    light,
    dark,
  }),
});

Other presets: tokens.colorMode.mediaOnly, attributeOnly, mediaOrAttribute. Condition primitives: tokens.when.media, prefersDark, attr, className, selector, and, or, not.

See Theming patterns for end-to-end examples.