vanilla-extract

Overview

Vanilla Extract is a zero-runtime CSS-in-JS library. Styles are written in TypeScript and compiled to static CSS at build time — no runtime overhead, full type safety, and excellent performance.

Capabilities

• Zero-runtime CSS (compiled at build time)
• Type-safe style definitions in TypeScript
• Sprinkles for utility-first responsive styles
• Recipes for component variants
• Theme contracts for type-safe theming
• Works with Vite, Webpack, esbuild, Next.js

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "vanilla extract"

• "Vanilla Extract zero-runtime CSS-in-JS — type-safe styles, Sprinkles, Recipes, t"

• Want CSS-in-JS without runtime performance cost

• Need type-safe styles in TypeScript projects

• Building design systems with variant-heavy components

• Migrating from styled-components to zero-runtime

When NOT to Use

• Task is about content strategy, not creation (use strategy skills)
• Task is about content distribution (use distribution skills)
• You need to analyze content performance (use analytics skills)
• Task is about content moderation (use moderation tools)
• You don't have content guidelines
• Task requires domain expertise (consult experts)

Pseudo Code

The vanilla-extract workflow follows a standard pipeline pattern.

Core flow:

# vanilla-extract primary flow
input = prepare(raw_data)
result = process(input, config={extract, recipes, runtime, safe, sprinkles})
validate(result)
deliver(result)

Error handling:

on error:
  log(error_details)
  retry_with_backoff(max=3)
  if still_failing: alert_and_escalate()

Core Workflow

# vanilla-extract primary flow
input = prepare(raw_data)
result = process(input, config={extract, recipes, runtime, safe, sprinkles})
validate(result)
deliver(result)

Error Handling

on error:
  log(error_details)
  retry_with_backoff(max=3)
  if still_failing: alert_and_escalate()

Basic Styles

// styles.css.ts
import { style } from "@vanilla-extract/css"

export const container = style({
  padding: "24px",
  borderRadius: "8px",
  backgroundColor: "#f8fafc",
  ":hover": { backgroundColor: "#f1f5f9" },
  "@media": {
    "(max-width: 768px)": { padding: "16px" },
  },
})