revert-layer

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The revert-layer CSS keyword rolls back the value of a property in a cascade layer to the value of the property in a CSS rule matching the element in a previous cascade layer. The value of the property with this keyword is recalculated as if no rules were specified on the target element in the current cascade layer.

If there is no other cascade layer to revert to for the matching CSS rule, the property value rolls back to the computed value derived from the current layer. Furthermore, if there is no matching CSS rule in the current layer, the property value for the element rolls back to the style defined in a previous style origin.

This keyword can be applied to any CSS property, including the CSS shorthand property all.

Revert-layer vs. revert

The revert-layer keyword lets you rollback styles to the ones specified in previous cascade layers. All cascade layers exist in the author origin. The revert keyword, in comparison, lets you remove styles applied in the author origin and roll back to styles in user origin or user-agent origin.

The revert-layer keyword is ideally meant for applying on properties inside a layer. However, if the revert-layer keyword is set on a property outside a layer, the value of the property will roll back to the default value established by the user agent's stylesheet (or by user styles, if any exist). So in this scenario, the revert-layer keyword behaves like the revert keyword.

Examples

Default cascade layer behavior

In the example below, two cascade layers are defined in the CSS, base and special. By default, rules in the special layer will override competing rules in the base layer because special is listed after base in the @layer declaration statement.

HTML

html

<p>This example contains a list.</p>

<ul>
  <li class="item feature">Item one</li>
  <li class="item">Item two</li>
  <li class="item">Item three</li>
</ul>

CSS

css

@layer base, special;

@layer special {
  .item {
    color: red;
  }
}

@layer base {
  .item {
    color: blue;
  }
  .feature {
    color: green;
  }
}

Result

All the <li> elements match the item rule in the special layer and are red. This is the default cascade layer behavior, where rules in the special layer take precedence over rules in the base layer.

Revert to style in previous cascade layer

Let's examine how the revert-layer keyword changes the default cascade layer behavior. For this example, the special layer contains an additional feature rule targeting the first <li> element. The color property in this rule is set to revert-layer.

HTML

html

<p>This example contains a list.</p>

<ul>
  <li class="item feature">Item one</li>
  <li class="item">Item two</li>
  <li class="item">Item three</li>
</ul>

CSS

css

@layer base, special;

@layer special {
  .item {
    color: red;
  }
  .feature {
    color: revert-layer;
  }
}

@layer base {
  .item {
    color: blue;
  }
  .feature {
    color: green;
  }
}

Result

With color set to revert-layer, the color property value rolls back to the value in the matching feature rule in the previous layer base, and so 'Item one' is now green.

Revert to style in previous origin

This example shows the revert-layer keyword behavior when there is no cascade layer to revert to and there is no matching CSS rule in the current layer to inherit the property value.

HTML

html

<p>This example contains a list.</p>

<ul>
  <li class="item feature">Item one</li>
  <li class="item">Item two</li>
  <li class="item">Item three</li>
</ul>

CSS

css

@layer base {
  .item {
    color: revert-layer;
  }
}

Result

The style for all <li> elements rolls back to the defaults in the user-agent origin.

Specifications

Specification
CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 5 # revert-layer

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser