gamut-style-utilities

name	gamut-style-utilities
description	Use this skill when authoring Gamut styles with @codecademy/gamut-styles — css(), variant(), states(), StyleProps from variance, or the useTheme() escape hatch; choosing between these APIs and system props; semantic tokens with ColorMode.
metadata	{"author":"Codecademy"}

Gamut style utilities

Source: @codecademy/gamut-styles — variance/props.ts (css, variant, states built on PROPERTIES.all).

See also: gamut-theming (which theme, GamutProvider, new themes). gamut-system-props (system.*, responsive props, Box). gamut-color-mode (semantic color, <ColorMode>, <Background>). Best practices and system compose.

Overview

Use css(), variant(), and states() from @codecademy/gamut-styles for typed, token-scaled style objects (same scales as composed system.* props). Prefer semantic color keys so styles track ColorMode and theme.

For layout-heavy styled components, prefer composing system.* via variance.compose() (see gamut-system-props) instead of re-stating every longhand in css().

css() — static style objects

import { css } from '@codecademy/gamut-styles';
import styled from '@emotion/styled';

const Box = styled.div(css({ bg: 'navy-400', p: 4 }));
const Text = styled.div(css({ color: 'primary', p: 4 }));

variant() and states() — branching and toggles

• variant() — mutually exclusive modes: base, defaultVariant, and a variants map (semantic colors, spacing shorthands, nested selectors such as '&:hover').

import { variant } from '@codecademy/gamut-styles';
import styled from '@emotion/styled';

const Anchor = styled.a(
  variant({
    base: { p: 4 },
    defaultVariant: 'interface',
    variants: {
      interface: {
        color: 'text',
        '&:hover': { color: 'text-accent' },
      },
      inline: {
        color: 'primary',
        '&:hover': { color: 'secondary' },
      },
    },
  })
);

• states() — independent boolean-style props (base + named keys).

import { states } from '@codecademy/gamut-styles';
import styled from '@emotion/styled';

const UtilityBox = styled.div(
  states({
    base: { mx: 4, my: 8, p: 16 },
    disabled: { bg: 'background-disabled', color: 'text-disabled' },
    center: { alignItems: 'center', justifyContent: 'center' },
  })
);

StyleProps on React components

import { states } from '@codecademy/gamut-styles';
import { StyleProps } from '@codecademy/variance';
import styled from '@emotion/styled';

const panelShellStates = states({ base: { p: 4 }, dense: { p: 2 } });
const PanelShell = styled.div(panelShellStates);

export type PanelShellProps = StyleProps<typeof panelShellStates> & {
  title: string;
};

export const Panel: React.FC<PanelShellProps> = ({ title, ...rest }) => (
  <PanelShell {...rest}>{title}</PanelShell>
);

Prefer variant / states over branching on raw theme fields inside styled template literals when the output is Emotion-managed CSS.

useTheme() — escape hatch

Prefer css(), system.*, variant(), and states() for styling. Use useTheme() from @emotion/react when a token value must be read in plain JS (charts, canvas, third-party props), not as the default way to color DOM nodes.

import { useTheme } from '@emotion/react';

const Sparkline = () => {
  const theme = useTheme();
  return <path strokeWidth={theme.spacing[4]} d="M0 0 L10 10" />;
};

Key principles

• Prefer semantic color keys in css / variant / states so ColorMode and theme switches apply; see gamut-color-mode.
• Never hardcode hex in component styles — use tokens / semantic aliases.
• Prefer variant / states for modes and toggles instead of ad-hoc theme interpolation in template literals.

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Source: Codecademy/gamut — distributed by TomeVault.