Title: Call for CSS contributors! Help implement custom properties in WP Admin.
Author: Lara Schenck
Published: August 2, 2021
Last modified: July 29, 2021

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 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/notlaura/) [Lara Schenck](https://profiles.wordpress.org/notlaura/)
10:05 am _on_ August 2, 2021     
Tags: [core-css ( 192 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/core-css/)

# Call for CSS contributors! Help implement custom properties in WP Admin.

## 󠀁[󠀁[WordPress needs your CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. chops!

In[ #core-css](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/core-css/), we have been working
for over a year to devise how to implement custom properties for WP Adminadmin (
and super admin) in order to allow extended flexibility of color schemes, e.g. dark
mode and high contrast. After much deliberation, research, and prototyping, we are
now going forward with replacing the current color scheme implementation with custom
properties as outlined in ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature 
development on the bug tracker.[ #49582](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49930),
and **we need some help**!

If you’d like to get started on your own or learn details about this work, we are
keeping track of our workflow and collecting information that will serve as future
documentation in this Google Doc:[ WordPress Core CSS custom properties](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z0Wo1W0ZQwFJYPcJ8GlsubA9uKhcFdT8ifYnso82z9I/edit#).

## Join our Custom Property Work Sessions

We also know that it can take time to understand the nuances of a project enough
to contribute, it can be intimidating, and it can be hard to designate the time 
for it. That’s why we are devoting the next three weekly CoreCore Core is the set
of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
CSS Chats to work time and “office hours”, where experienced folks will be available
to help with any issues in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform
[https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/). The WordPress community has its own Slack
Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/).

The dates and times for the _CSS Chat: Custom Property Work Session_ editions of
the weekly meeting will be:

 * August 5, 2021 at 21:00 UTC
 * August 12, 2021 at 21:00 UTC
 * August 19, 2021 at 21:00 UTC

## Excellent Opportunity for New Contributors

This is a _great_ opportunity to get involved with contributing code to WordPress!
The knowledge you’ll need for contributing is:

 * Ability to fork and clone a repo from GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers
   online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and
   modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories
   require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’
   where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed
   before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)
   and create your own branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches
   to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.).
   Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes,
   a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred
   to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch".
 * Run commands to start the WordPress development environment
 * Read CSS selectors from a file and find what they refer to in the DOM
 * Understanding of CSS custom properties (a.k.a. CSS variables) syntax

Some helpful links for where to obtain this knowledge:

 * [The FAQ for New Contributors](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/tutorials/faq-for-new-contributors/)
   is the place to start with lots of information about contributing to WordPress!
 * [Setting Up Your Development Environment](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/tutorials/getting-started/#setting-up-your-development-environment)
   in the WordPress Core Handbook
 * [Using Custom Properties (variables)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties)
   is a good overview of the concepts of custom properties, and [A Complete Guide to Custom Properties](https://css-tricks.com/a-complete-guide-to-custom-properties/)
   has more detailed info.

That said, **this knowledge is not required for attending the work sessions**. If
you run into an issue or have trouble following the doc above, just ask in Slack
during one of the meetings, and someone will help.

_We hope you will join us to help advance and maintain WordPress’ core stylesheets!_

[#core-css](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/core-css/)

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# Post navigation

[← Devchat summary, July 28, 2021](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/30/devchat-summary-july-28-2021/)

[Editor chat summary: Wednesday, 28 July 2021 →](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/02/editor-chat-summary-wednesday-28-july-2021/)