mCSS 1.4.0

[minimaldesign]

mCSS 1.4.0 draws the line the framework was always reaching for: structure on one side, design on the other. Every design value now lives in the default theme, one swappable file your own theme overrides, and the new external layer finally makes third-party CSS trivial to override (#65).

mCSS follows the copy-it-you-own-it model: there is no package to update. Grab dist/mcss.css (or mcss.min.css), copy the pieces you want, and edit them like anything else you wrote.

What's new

• The default theme. theme.default.css (importing theme.default.tokens.css + theme.default.ui.css) holds every design value the framework uses: raw tokens on one side, UI tokens on the other. The framework files are pure structure and never need editing; a theme is now genuinely one file of design decisions, and small ones go far because every component reads UI tokens like --ui-border-color instead of raw values.
• theme.starter.css is the starting point for your own theme, and theme.wireframe.css shows the full-theme pattern: an entry that composes the default theme and overrides on top, activated INSTEAD of the default.
• The external layer. Import a vendor stylesheet with @import url(…) layer(external); and it beats the framework but loses to all your unlayered CSS, at any specificity. No more fighting a datepicker's selectors: your one-class rule wins. Fixes to vendor styles get their own patch.*.css convention.
• The layer statement can't drift anymore. It's deliberately duplicated (theme files pin it, docs quote it, dist ships it), so mcss.css is now the single source of truth: the build derives the dist statement from it and a new check-layers.mjs guard (pre-commit + CI) fails when any copy disagrees.
• The docs got a full restructure, organized around what you're doing instead of mirroring the file tree: Getting Started, Installation, Default HTML, Default Theme, Layout, Components, Helpers, Browser Support, AI Agents. Every page got a copy rewrite and a fact-check sweep against the framework source. Old URLs (and their .md twins for AI agents) 301 to the new homes.

Breaking changes

• Your entry must activate the default theme. mcss.css no longer carries design values; nothing paints without @import url(./framework/theme.default.css); right after it. Drop-in users are unaffected: dist/mcss.css bakes the default theme in.
• settings.tokens.css / settings.ui.css are now theme.default.tokens.css / theme.default.ui.css, and the theme layer split into theme.default and theme.user. The full statement is base, elements, global, components, theme.default, theme.user, external, helpers. Your theme self-layers into theme.user and beats the default regardless of import order.
• The feedback alias tier is gone: --success-* / --danger-* / --warning-* are removed; use the --yes-* / --no-* / --maybe-* palettes directly.
• Docs URLs moved (tokens/themes → default-theme, reset/elements → default-html, global/media-queries → layout, template → components). All old URLs 301, including the markdown twins.

The full list is in the changelog. Built something with mCSS? Come show it off in the discussions.

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This discussion was created from the release mCSS 1.4.0.