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# Design tokens

A design token is a named value: **Primary Blue** instead of `#3b82f6`, **Body Serif** instead of a font list. Define it once for the site and reference it everywhere; change it once and everywhere updates. Tokens are what keep a growing site on one palette instead of thirty slightly different blues.

![The Variables view in the Styles workspace, listing the site's CSS custom properties by group](/content/docs/images/css-variables.png)

## Define tokens

Tokens are your site's CSS custom properties: the `--` keys of the `style` block in `project.json`. You edit them in the **Variables** view of the **Styles** workspace, which is where the workspace opens: click **Styles** in the Command Bar (⌘4, or **Go to Styles** from ⌘K). In [Project settings](/docs/studio/projects/settings), the **Moved** footnote's **Colors and fonts** button opens the same view.

The **Styles** panel beside it lists every token the project defines, by its name and grouped as the view groups them, with a count on each group and a swatch on each color. Click a token to jump to its row with the value ready to edit, or a group to jump to that group. **Add variable** jumps to the add row, so a new token is named and stored the same way as one added in the view. From the **Elements** view, any of these switches you back to Variables first. See **[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook#the-styles-panel)**.

Note

A change in the Variables view is saved to 
`project.json`
 as you make it, so there is nothing to save afterwards. Because tokens and element defaults live in the same file, the write also saves any element default from the 
**Elements**
 view that was still waiting for 
**Save**
, and the view says so at its top. Undo is the exception: 
⌘Z
 takes a change back in the open file, which then shows its unsaved dot until you 
**Save**
 (
⌘S
).

Tokens are grouped by what they name:

- **Colors**: each row has a color swatch (click it for a native picker), the token's name as CSS spells it (`--color-accent`), and its value. Edits appear on the canvas immediately.
- **Fonts**: each font renders a preview sentence in its own face below the row.
- **Sizes & Spacing**: widths, gaps, and radii.
- **Other**: anything that doesn't fit the groups above. It appears only once something lands in it.

To add a token, type a friendly name and a value in the group's empty row and click **Add**. Studio derives the stored variable name from the group and your name, so "Primary Blue" in Colors becomes `--color-primary-blue`. The trash button removes a token; anything still referencing it falls back to nothing, so remove with care.

A token can be built from another one: give it the value `var(--color-brand)` and the row grows a chip naming `--color-brand`, with the color that reference ends up at. Studio follows the chain to its end, so an alias of an alias still shows a color rather than more syntax.

Tip

A value that could not be written to 
`project.json`
 is raised on 
**[Problems](/docs/studio/interface/problems-and-progress)**
 rather than quietly dropped. While 
`project.json`
 is open in the Styles workspace, each token change is a step in its history, so 
⌘Z
 there takes it back.

## One token, several values

A token can hold a different value in any rendering context the project declares, like a color that darkens in the dark scheme or spacing that tightens on phones:

- Every color token carries a row per declared **[color scheme](/docs/framework/concepts/color-schemes)**, whether or not it has a value there, because "what is this color in dark mode" is a question a palette is always answering. Leave the row empty to inherit the base value.
- Any token can be given a value in any other declared context from the **Add override…** picker under its row: a breakpoint, a scheme, or a feature query. The picker offers only the contexts that token has no row for yet.
- Clearing an override's field removes it, and the token goes back to inheriting its base value.

Contexts are declared in one place, **Project settings › Advanced › Contexts**, described in **[Breakpoints](/docs/studio/design/breakpoints)**. The **Manage contexts…** button at the top of the Variables view opens Project settings on that section, and a project with no color scheme yet gets the same button under the Colors group.

## Use tokens while styling

Tokens surface right inside the [Style inspector](/docs/studio/design/style-inspector)'s controls:

- The **color picker** lists your color tokens under its sliders, each by the name you gave it. Pick one and the field holds the reference, `var(--color-primary-blue)`, with that swatch marked as the chosen one and the swatch beside the value showing the token's color.
- The **font family** box lists your font tokens first, each previewed in its own face. Picking one of the ready-made presets creates a matching font token automatically, so even your first font choice becomes reusable.
- Any field accepts a token typed directly as `var(--color-primary-blue)`, useful for the occasional property without a picker.

A field holding a token reference is *following* the token: edit the token in the Variables view and every element using it updates. The edit lands in place on every live canvas, the page you had open and the **[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook)** catalog alike, so tuning a token shows the design changing rather than describing it.

In **[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook)**, a value that arrives from your project's site-wide style rather than from the open file wears an inherited chip reading **from site tokens**, so an element default that comes with the project is never mistaken for one written in this file.

Studio also nudges toward tokens in the other direction: when its AI assistant writes styles, hard-coded values that duplicate an existing token are flagged with the token to use instead.

Note

Tokens are CSS custom properties in your project's site-wide 
`style`
 (in 
`project.json`
), inherited by every page and component. A per-context value is stored beside the token in an 
`@`
 block named for that context. The format is described in 
**[Styling](/docs/framework/concepts/styling)**
.

## Next

- Pair tokens with element defaults in **[Project Styles](/docs/studio/design/stylebook)**.
- Make size tokens shift per screen with **[Breakpoints](/docs/studio/design/breakpoints)**.

✕

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 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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 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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/)

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