THE BROWSER DETECTIVE // case 12

CASE 12 THE VARIABLE The stylesheet holds more than colours.

// case notes

CSS isn't just about how things look. Modern stylesheets can define custom properties variables that store arbitrary values. They're declared in the stylesheet and read by the browser at render time.

Veyra registered a custom property on this page. It doesn't control any visible style. It just sits in the cascade, waiting to be read. You can find it in the computed styles of the root element, or by reading the stylesheet rules directly.

// the vault
> property registered value concealed
████████████████
> the slot above is painted with a CSS variable's value.
> the paint is invisible. the variable is not.
// evidence log, enter the variable's value
>
hint: Some values live in the :root in DevTools → look at the custom properties, use the console.log().