Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-properties-values-api] Shorthand for custom property declaration (#7523)

@mirisuzanne 
> It's worth noting that we do already have an inline parameter syntax for defining everything except inheritance: `--grue <color>: rgb(0% 80% 80%)` (where the type can be wrapped in `type()` if it's more complex than a single value. If we want a one-line variant in the future, it seems like that would be the syntax to build on.

We do?! That's amazing! 🤩 But where is it?! I can't find it in any spec.

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@Crissov 
> [@LeaVerou](https://github.com/LeaVerou) If I did not [miss anything](https://drafts.csswg.org/indexes/#at-rules), `image` surprisingly is indeed the only [`<syntax-type-name>`](https://drafts.csswg.org/css-values-5/#typedef-syntax-type-name) that does/should already exists as a (declaration-block) at-rule `@image`, but since this has not actually been drafted yet, its name could still be changed.

No, we are not going to define an `@rule` for every possible elementary syntax and waste these names just to save a few characters from `@property`. And we are definitely **not** going to rename an existing rule that does something that isn't possible at all, so that a shortcut rule can be accommodated. Shortcuts are nice-to-haves, not things we bend over backwards to accommodate. And this particular shortcut syntax has usability issues even beyond this.

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I feel we're getting a little sidetracked overoptimizing.

IMO the order of priorities is:
1. Get that `#` in (async resolution) so that we can consolidate multiple properties with the same parameters ASAP.
2. Explore making descriptors optional in https://github.com/w3c/css-houdini-drafts/issues/1162 I suspect this is also going to be easier to get consensus around than many of the syntaxes discussed here.

Let those ship, and *then* see any other sugar is needed for the case of registering a predefined set of properties. I suspect there's a high chance these may be enough, and we're expending effort here trying to solve what is going to become incredibly minor problems once these ship.

Another direction worth pursuing may be mass registration in https://github.com/w3c/css-houdini-drafts/issues/1058 , since that's not just a shortcut but also a way to **decouple** code.
Still much lower priority though.

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Received on Friday, 12 December 2025 15:00:20 UTC