Cascading Layers of !mportance – Miriam Suzanne
August 8, 2025
The Cascade is the underlying algorithm that applies our styles the web, and a main target of frustration when our styles go bad. But why is it there, how is it changing, and why should we care? Cascade Layers are now widely available, with the potential to fundamentally change how we think about the cascade – and how we collaborate across design systems, component libraries, and third-party tools.
The way we architect CSS has always been a bit of a pain point of the language. As the uses we put it to have become more complex, that complexity has been reflected in the CSS we produce.
Ultimately, we end up with challenges around specificity, inheritance, and the cascade that can be very challenging to manage.
A solution that has emerged for CSS is Cascade Layers. It’s actually been around for a few years now and it’s well-supported but not widely adopted. Here Miriam Suzanne discusses cascade layers and how we can use them. And make sure you check out some other talks on Conffab around the same topic as well.
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