[Skip to content](#main-content)

[![Jx Suite](/favicon.svg)
Suite](/)Search⌘KESC

Jump to

[Install Jx Studio](/docs/start/install)[Build your first project](/docs/start/first-project)[Document format](/docs/framework/concepts/documents)[Formula catalog](/docs/framework/reference/formulas)

↵
select↑↓
navigateesc
close

[Studio](/studio)[Framework](/framework)[Templates](/templates)[Compare](/compare)[Docs](/docs/start/first-project)[GitHub](https://github.com/jxsuite/jx)[Download](/download)

✕

[Studio](/studio)[Framework](/framework)[Templates](/templates)[Compare](/compare)[Docs](/docs/start/first-project)[GitHub](https://github.com/jxsuite/jx)

Color scheme&#xA;

[Download](/download)

☰

Docs menu

Start here[Overview](/docs/start/)Get started[Install Jx Studio](/docs/start/install/)[Your first project](/docs/start/first-project/)[A tour of Jx Studio](/docs/start/studio-tour/)Tutorials[Tutorial: interactive component](/docs/start/first-component/)[Tutorial: blog with collections](/docs/start/first-collection/)[Video tutorials](/docs/start/videos/)Coming from another tool[Coming from WordPress](/docs/start/coming-from-wordpress/)[Coming from Webflow or Framer](/docs/start/coming-from-webflow/)[Coming from Wix or Squarespace](/docs/start/coming-from-wix/)[Coming from Lovable or Builder.io](/docs/start/coming-from-ai-builders/)Studio[Overview](/docs/studio/)[The desktop app](/docs/studio/desktop/)The workspace[Overview](/docs/studio/interface/)[Welcome screen](/docs/studio/interface/welcome-screen/)[Editors and views](/docs/studio/interface/modes/)[The canvas](/docs/studio/interface/canvas/)[Documents and panes](/docs/studio/interface/tabs/)[Quick Access](/docs/studio/interface/quick-access/)[Keyboard shortcuts](/docs/studio/interface/shortcuts/)[Preferences](/docs/studio/interface/preferences/)[Languages](/docs/studio/interface/languages/)[Problems and progress](/docs/studio/interface/problems-and-progress/)[Commands](/docs/studio/interface/commands/)Projects[Overview](/docs/studio/projects/)[Create a project](/docs/studio/projects/create/)[Pages, layouts, components](/docs/studio/projects/pages-layouts-components/)[The Content workspace](/docs/studio/projects/browse/)[Starter templates](/docs/studio/projects/starters/)[Media](/docs/studio/projects/media/)[Content types](/docs/studio/projects/content-types/)[Project settings](/docs/studio/projects/settings/)[Dependencies and imports](/docs/studio/projects/dependencies/)Edit mode[Overview](/docs/studio/editing/)[Writing and formatting](/docs/studio/editing/writing/)[Slash commands](/docs/studio/editing/slash-commands/)[Frontmatter and metadata](/docs/studio/editing/frontmatter/)[Grid mode](/docs/studio/editing/grid/)Design mode[Overview](/docs/studio/design/)[Outline](/docs/studio/design/layers/)[Insert](/docs/studio/design/elements/)[Content tab](/docs/studio/design/properties/)[Style inspector](/docs/studio/design/style-inspector/)[Breakpoints](/docs/studio/design/breakpoints/)[States and selectors](/docs/studio/design/states-and-selectors/)[Design tokens](/docs/studio/design/tokens/)[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook/)[Working with components](/docs/studio/design/components/)[Repeaters](/docs/studio/design/repeaters/)Logic[Overview](/docs/studio/logic/)[Formulas and expressions](/docs/studio/logic/formulas/)[Formula workspace](/docs/studio/logic/formula-workspace/)[Statements](/docs/studio/logic/statements/)[Logic tab](/docs/studio/logic/events/)[Data](/docs/studio/logic/data/)[Data sources](/docs/studio/logic/data-sources/)[Code editing](/docs/studio/logic/code/)Databases[Overview](/docs/studio/data/)[Connections](/docs/studio/data/connections/)[Data tables](/docs/studio/data/tables/)[Data grid](/docs/studio/data/grid/)[Auth and secrets](/docs/studio/data/auth-and-secrets/)AI assistant[Overview](/docs/studio/ai/)[The AI assistant](/docs/studio/ai/chat/)[Document assistant](/docs/studio/ai/document-assistant/)Publish[Overview](/docs/studio/publish/)[Source control](/docs/studio/publish/source-control/)[GitHub](/docs/studio/publish/github/)[Cloudflare Pages](/docs/studio/publish/cloudflare/)[Other hosts](/docs/studio/publish/other-hosts/)[Redirects](/docs/studio/publish/redirects/)[Real-time collaboration](/docs/studio/publish/collaboration/)Framework[Overview](/docs/framework/)Concepts[Documents](/docs/framework/concepts/documents/)[Elements](/docs/framework/concepts/elements/)[Components](/docs/framework/concepts/components/)[Props and scope](/docs/framework/concepts/props-and-scope/)[State](/docs/framework/concepts/state/)[Reactivity](/docs/framework/concepts/reactivity/)[References](/docs/framework/concepts/references/)[Expressions](/docs/framework/concepts/expressions/)[Statements](/docs/framework/concepts/statements/)[Functions and sidecars](/docs/framework/concepts/functions/)[Styling](/docs/framework/concepts/styling/)[Color schemes](/docs/framework/concepts/color-schemes/)[Popovers and overlays](/docs/framework/concepts/overlays/)[Accessibility](/docs/framework/concepts/accessibility/)[Lists and iteration](/docs/framework/concepts/lists/)[Data prototypes](/docs/framework/concepts/data-prototypes/)[Timing](/docs/framework/concepts/timing/)[Dynamic switching](/docs/framework/concepts/switching/)[Security](/docs/framework/concepts/security/)Site architecture[Overview](/docs/framework/site/)[project.json](/docs/framework/site/project-json/)[Routing](/docs/framework/site/routing/)[Layouts](/docs/framework/site/layouts/)[Content collections](/docs/framework/site/content-collections/)[Jx Markdown](/docs/framework/site/jx-markdown/)[Obsidian vault as content](/docs/framework/site/obsidian-vault/)[Relationships](/docs/framework/site/relationships/)[SEO and metadata](/docs/framework/site/seo/)[Locales and languages](/docs/framework/site/i18n/)[Images](/docs/framework/site/images/)[Redirects](/docs/framework/site/redirects/)[Feeds](/docs/framework/site/feeds/)[Site search](/docs/framework/site/search/)[Build output and adapters](/docs/framework/site/deployment/)How compilation works[Overview](/docs/framework/build/)[The dev server](/docs/framework/build/dev-server/)[CLI commands](/docs/framework/build/cli/)Working with agents[Overview](/docs/framework/agents/)[Authoring rules for agents](/docs/framework/agents/authoring-rules/)[Machine-readable docs](/docs/framework/agents/machine-readable/)Reference[Overview](/docs/framework/reference/)[Formula catalog](/docs/framework/reference/formulas/)[Operator reference](/docs/framework/reference/operators/)Extending[Overview](/docs/extending/)Extensions[Extension anatomy](/docs/extending/extensions/anatomy/)[Schema composition](/docs/extending/extensions/schema-composition/)[Custom classes](/docs/extending/extensions/classes/)[Custom formats](/docs/extending/extensions/formats/)[Capability methods](/docs/extending/extensions/capabilities/)[Project sections](/docs/extending/extensions/project-sections/)[Server mounts](/docs/extending/extensions/server/)[Connectors](/docs/extending/extensions/connectors/)[Search indexes](/docs/extending/extensions/search/)[Security and secrets](/docs/extending/extensions/security/)[Tutorial: a TOML format](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-toml-format/)[Tutorial: a guestbook](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-guestbook/)[First-party extensions](/docs/extending/extensions/first-party/)Embedding[Overview](/docs/extending/embedding/)[Hosting the Studio assets](/docs/extending/embedding/hosting/)[Writing a platform adapter](/docs/extending/embedding/platform-adapter/)[The backend protocol](/docs/extending/embedding/backend-protocol/)[Dev server internals](/docs/extending/embedding/dev-server/)[Embedding the runtime in your app](/docs/extending/embedding/runtime-host/)[Writing assistant tools](/docs/extending/embedding/assistant-harness/)UI kit[The Jx UI kit](/docs/extending/ui-kit/)Reference[Protocol routes](/docs/extending/reference/studio-routes/)[Implementation status](/docs/extending/reference/implementation-status/)[Spec changelog](/docs/extending/reference/spec-changelog/)[Standards alignment](/docs/extending/reference/standards/)Contributing[Working in the monorepo](/docs/extending/contributing/monorepo/)[Contributing to these docs](/docs/extending/contributing/docs/)[AI assistant evals](/docs/extending/contributing/ai-evals/)

# Color schemes

A Jx design can ship light and dark variants of its tokens, follow the visitor's OS preference by default, and still let the visitor force either scheme with a switcher. The whole mechanism builds on [named media breakpoints](/docs/framework/concepts/styling#named-media-breakpoints), with no separate theme system.

## Declaring scheme support

Add a **scheme query** to `$media` in `project.json`, an entry whose value is exactly a `prefers-color-scheme` query:

```json&#x20;shiki
```

Then override any design token (or any style property) per scheme with an `@--dark` block. Convention: author the light values as the base and the dark values as overrides.

```json&#x20;shiki
```

`@--dark` blocks work in component and element styles too, exactly like responsive breakpoints:

```json&#x20;shiki
```

## What declaring a scheme query does

Declaring a scheme query opts the site into the forced-scheme contract:

- Every `@--dark` block is emitted twice: once inside `@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark)` (applies in **auto** mode), and once under `:root[data-color-scheme="dark"]` (applies when the scheme is **forced**). Both copies are specificity-neutral, so your cascade is unchanged.
- A [`@keyframes`](/docs/framework/concepts/styling) block inside a scheme block is the one exception: it is emitted once, under the media-guarded copy. The forced copy works by re-pointing a selector, an animation name has none, and a second copy of one name would replace the first for every visitor.
- `color-scheme: light dark` is declared on `:root`, with forced-mode overrides, so native form controls and scrollbars follow along. Set `colorScheme` in the project `style` yourself and your value replaces that declaration, on `:root` as well: `light-dark()` resolves against the element carrying `color-scheme`, so a value on `body` would leave every token on `:root` reading the browser default. A block keyed `&[...]` at the top of the project `style` is a state of the root element, so `&[data-theme="light"]` becomes `:root[data-theme="light"]` in the built page and on the Studio canvas alike.
- A tiny inline script is injected at the top of `<head>` that restores the visitor's persisted choice before first paint, so a forced scheme never flashes.

## The visitor override contract

Two constants make up the contract:

| Constant            | Where                 | Meaning                                                 |
| ------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `data-color-scheme` | attribute on `<html>` | `"light"` or `"dark"` forces that scheme; absent = auto |
| `jx-color-scheme`   | `localStorage` key    | persisted forced scheme; absent = auto                  |

A switcher only needs to keep the two in sync. Cycling auto → light → dark:

```js&#x20;shiki
```

The pre-paint script (injected automatically) reads the storage key on the next load, so the choice sticks across pages and visits.

Note

Only&#x20;
*pure*
&#x20;scheme queries participate:&#x20;
`(prefers-color-scheme: dark)`
&#x20;with nothing else attached. A compound query like&#x20;
`(prefers-color-scheme: dark) and (min-width: 768px)`
&#x20;compiles as a plain media query and does not respond to the forced attribute.

Tip

Studio shows Auto/Light/Dark segments among the context bar's&#x20;
**Context**
&#x20;controls whenever the project declares a scheme query, and the design token editor can author the&#x20;
`@--dark`
&#x20;values for you.

✕

Start here[Overview](/docs/start/)Get started[Install Jx Studio](/docs/start/install/)[Your first project](/docs/start/first-project/)[A tour of Jx Studio](/docs/start/studio-tour/)Tutorials[Tutorial: interactive component](/docs/start/first-component/)[Tutorial: blog with collections](/docs/start/first-collection/)[Video tutorials](/docs/start/videos/)Coming from another tool[Coming from WordPress](/docs/start/coming-from-wordpress/)[Coming from Webflow or Framer](/docs/start/coming-from-webflow/)[Coming from Wix or Squarespace](/docs/start/coming-from-wix/)[Coming from Lovable or Builder.io](/docs/start/coming-from-ai-builders/)Studio[Overview](/docs/studio/)[The desktop app](/docs/studio/desktop/)The workspace[Overview](/docs/studio/interface/)[Welcome screen](/docs/studio/interface/welcome-screen/)[Editors and views](/docs/studio/interface/modes/)[The canvas](/docs/studio/interface/canvas/)[Documents and panes](/docs/studio/interface/tabs/)[Quick Access](/docs/studio/interface/quick-access/)[Keyboard shortcuts](/docs/studio/interface/shortcuts/)[Preferences](/docs/studio/interface/preferences/)[Languages](/docs/studio/interface/languages/)[Problems and progress](/docs/studio/interface/problems-and-progress/)[Commands](/docs/studio/interface/commands/)Projects[Overview](/docs/studio/projects/)[Create a project](/docs/studio/projects/create/)[Pages, layouts, components](/docs/studio/projects/pages-layouts-components/)[The Content workspace](/docs/studio/projects/browse/)[Starter templates](/docs/studio/projects/starters/)[Media](/docs/studio/projects/media/)[Content types](/docs/studio/projects/content-types/)[Project settings](/docs/studio/projects/settings/)[Dependencies and imports](/docs/studio/projects/dependencies/)Edit mode[Overview](/docs/studio/editing/)[Writing and formatting](/docs/studio/editing/writing/)[Slash commands](/docs/studio/editing/slash-commands/)[Frontmatter and metadata](/docs/studio/editing/frontmatter/)[Grid mode](/docs/studio/editing/grid/)Design mode[Overview](/docs/studio/design/)[Outline](/docs/studio/design/layers/)[Insert](/docs/studio/design/elements/)[Content tab](/docs/studio/design/properties/)[Style inspector](/docs/studio/design/style-inspector/)[Breakpoints](/docs/studio/design/breakpoints/)[States and selectors](/docs/studio/design/states-and-selectors/)[Design tokens](/docs/studio/design/tokens/)[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook/)[Working with components](/docs/studio/design/components/)[Repeaters](/docs/studio/design/repeaters/)Logic[Overview](/docs/studio/logic/)[Formulas and expressions](/docs/studio/logic/formulas/)[Formula workspace](/docs/studio/logic/formula-workspace/)[Statements](/docs/studio/logic/statements/)[Logic tab](/docs/studio/logic/events/)[Data](/docs/studio/logic/data/)[Data sources](/docs/studio/logic/data-sources/)[Code editing](/docs/studio/logic/code/)Databases[Overview](/docs/studio/data/)[Connections](/docs/studio/data/connections/)[Data tables](/docs/studio/data/tables/)[Data grid](/docs/studio/data/grid/)[Auth and secrets](/docs/studio/data/auth-and-secrets/)AI assistant[Overview](/docs/studio/ai/)[The AI assistant](/docs/studio/ai/chat/)[Document assistant](/docs/studio/ai/document-assistant/)Publish[Overview](/docs/studio/publish/)[Source control](/docs/studio/publish/source-control/)[GitHub](/docs/studio/publish/github/)[Cloudflare Pages](/docs/studio/publish/cloudflare/)[Other hosts](/docs/studio/publish/other-hosts/)[Redirects](/docs/studio/publish/redirects/)[Real-time collaboration](/docs/studio/publish/collaboration/)Framework[Overview](/docs/framework/)Concepts[Documents](/docs/framework/concepts/documents/)[Elements](/docs/framework/concepts/elements/)[Components](/docs/framework/concepts/components/)[Props and scope](/docs/framework/concepts/props-and-scope/)[State](/docs/framework/concepts/state/)[Reactivity](/docs/framework/concepts/reactivity/)[References](/docs/framework/concepts/references/)[Expressions](/docs/framework/concepts/expressions/)[Statements](/docs/framework/concepts/statements/)[Functions and sidecars](/docs/framework/concepts/functions/)[Styling](/docs/framework/concepts/styling/)[Color schemes](/docs/framework/concepts/color-schemes/)[Popovers and overlays](/docs/framework/concepts/overlays/)[Accessibility](/docs/framework/concepts/accessibility/)[Lists and iteration](/docs/framework/concepts/lists/)[Data prototypes](/docs/framework/concepts/data-prototypes/)[Timing](/docs/framework/concepts/timing/)[Dynamic switching](/docs/framework/concepts/switching/)[Security](/docs/framework/concepts/security/)Site architecture[Overview](/docs/framework/site/)[project.json](/docs/framework/site/project-json/)[Routing](/docs/framework/site/routing/)[Layouts](/docs/framework/site/layouts/)[Content collections](/docs/framework/site/content-collections/)[Jx Markdown](/docs/framework/site/jx-markdown/)[Obsidian vault as content](/docs/framework/site/obsidian-vault/)[Relationships](/docs/framework/site/relationships/)[SEO and metadata](/docs/framework/site/seo/)[Locales and languages](/docs/framework/site/i18n/)[Images](/docs/framework/site/images/)[Redirects](/docs/framework/site/redirects/)[Feeds](/docs/framework/site/feeds/)[Site search](/docs/framework/site/search/)[Build output and adapters](/docs/framework/site/deployment/)How compilation works[Overview](/docs/framework/build/)[The dev server](/docs/framework/build/dev-server/)[CLI commands](/docs/framework/build/cli/)Working with agents[Overview](/docs/framework/agents/)[Authoring rules for agents](/docs/framework/agents/authoring-rules/)[Machine-readable docs](/docs/framework/agents/machine-readable/)Reference[Overview](/docs/framework/reference/)[Formula catalog](/docs/framework/reference/formulas/)[Operator reference](/docs/framework/reference/operators/)Extending[Overview](/docs/extending/)Extensions[Extension anatomy](/docs/extending/extensions/anatomy/)[Schema composition](/docs/extending/extensions/schema-composition/)[Custom classes](/docs/extending/extensions/classes/)[Custom formats](/docs/extending/extensions/formats/)[Capability methods](/docs/extending/extensions/capabilities/)[Project sections](/docs/extending/extensions/project-sections/)[Server mounts](/docs/extending/extensions/server/)[Connectors](/docs/extending/extensions/connectors/)[Search indexes](/docs/extending/extensions/search/)[Security and secrets](/docs/extending/extensions/security/)[Tutorial: a TOML format](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-toml-format/)[Tutorial: a guestbook](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-guestbook/)[First-party extensions](/docs/extending/extensions/first-party/)Embedding[Overview](/docs/extending/embedding/)[Hosting the Studio assets](/docs/extending/embedding/hosting/)[Writing a platform adapter](/docs/extending/embedding/platform-adapter/)[The backend protocol](/docs/extending/embedding/backend-protocol/)[Dev server internals](/docs/extending/embedding/dev-server/)[Embedding the runtime in your app](/docs/extending/embedding/runtime-host/)[Writing assistant tools](/docs/extending/embedding/assistant-harness/)UI kit[The Jx UI kit](/docs/extending/ui-kit/)Reference[Protocol routes](/docs/extending/reference/studio-routes/)[Implementation status](/docs/extending/reference/implementation-status/)[Spec changelog](/docs/extending/reference/spec-changelog/)[Standards alignment](/docs/extending/reference/standards/)Contributing[Working in the monorepo](/docs/extending/contributing/monorepo/)[Contributing to these docs](/docs/extending/contributing/docs/)[AI assistant evals](/docs/extending/contributing/ai-evals/)

[![Jx Suite](/favicon.svg)
Suite](/)The visual IDE for the web. Build any website, save it as plain files, own it forever. MIT licensed.

Product

[Studio](/studio)[Download](/download)[Templates](/templates)[Features](/features)[Compare](/compare)[Jx Cloud (soon)](/cloud)

Developers

[Docs](/docs/start/first-project)[Framework](/framework)[Get Studio](/docs/start/install)[Spec](/docs/framework)[GitHub](https://github.com/jxsuite/jx)

Project

[MIT License](https://github.com/jxsuite/jx/blob/main/LICENSE)[Releases](https://github.com/jxsuite/jx/releases/latest)[Privacy](/privacy)[Terms](/terms)[Support](/support)

Built with Jx Suite. © 2026 Avunu LLC. Open source under the MIT License.
