Global Styles: Retain responsive styles in block style variation partials

[guzel]

Fixes #82392.

Ports the core fix in WordPress/wordpress-develop#13325
(Trac ticket https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/65992, milestoned 7.1.1) to
the plugin. Since WP_Theme_JSON_Gutenberg overrides core's class while the
plugin is active, the core fix alone does not resolve this for Gutenberg users.

What

Responsive @tablet and @mobile styles are silently dropped from block style
variations declared in a standalone JSON partial in a theme's styles/
directory. The base rule is generated, but no media query CSS is emitted, and
nothing surfaces an error in the editor or on the front end.

The same variation declared inline in theme.json under
styles.blocks.<block>.variations.<slug> works correctly. Only the standalone
partial path is affected.

Why

Partials declare their styles at the root of the styles object, and
WP_Theme_JSON_Resolver_Gutenberg::get_style_variations() sanitizes each partial
by running it through WP_Theme_JSON_Gutenberg. So partials are validated
against the top-level styles schema in WP_Theme_JSON_Gutenberg::sanitize().

That schema is built to mirror the block style variation schema — both are
VALID_STYLES plus blocks and elements — which is what makes partials
sanitize correctly in the first place. The responsive breakpoint states were only
added to the block, element, and variation branches, so @tablet and @mobile
at the top level are removed by remove_keys_not_in_schema() as unknown keys.

The variation branch cannot cover this case: it validates
styles.blocks.<block>.variations.<slug>, a different location in the tree, and
its guard also requires the variation to already be present in
$valid_variations, which is derived from the block styles registry. Partials
are not registered until
gutenberg_register_block_style_variations_from_theme_json_partials() runs,
which happens after get_style_variations() returns.

How

Add the responsive breakpoint states to the top-level styles schema, mirroring
what the block style variation branch already does. This restores the parity the
two schemas were written to have.

Testing instructions

1. On a block theme, create styles/article-heading-xl.json:

{
	"version": 3,
	"title": "Heading XL",
	"slug": "article-heading-xl",
	"blockTypes": [ "core/heading" ],
	"styles": {
		"typography": { "fontSize": "40px", "fontWeight": "700", "lineHeight": "1.3" },
		"@tablet": { "typography": { "fontSize": "28px" } },
		"@mobile": { "typography": { "fontSize": "16px", "lineHeight": "1.35" } }
	}
}

2. Add a Heading block to a page and apply the "Heading XL" style variation.
3. View the page on the front end and inspect the heading.

Before: only the base rule is generated; the heading keeps its desktop font
size at every viewport width.

After: the base rule plus tablet and mobile media query rules are generated,
and the font size steps down at each breakpoint.

Automated tests

• test_block_style_variation_partial_retains_responsive_styles — asserts the
  breakpoint keys survive WP_Theme_JSON_Resolver_Gutenberg::get_style_variations().
• test_block_style_variation_partial_responsive_styles_generate_css — asserts
  the expected media queries appear in the generated CSS.

Both fail before the change and pass after. An existing expectation in
WP_Theme_JSON_Resolver_Gutenberg_Test is updated to account for the new test
fixture. The full PHP suite passes (2295 tests, no failures), and phpcs is
clean on the changed files.

Note on @since: this file uses WordPress versions rather than plugin versions,
so the annotation is @since 7.1.1 to match the Trac milestone. Happy to change
it if the fix should ride a different release.

AI assistance

• AI assistance: Yes
• Tool(s): Claude Code (Claude Opus 5)
• Used for: Root cause analysis, drafting the fix, and the two regression tests.

The tests were written first and confirmed failing against unpatched trunk, then
confirmed passing after the change. All output was reviewed by me before
submission.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features
  • Block style variation partials support responsive styles, including breakpoint-specific typography and generated CSS.
  • Pseudo-selector styles, such as hover states, are supported at the root and within responsive breakpoints.
  • Responsive and pseudo-selector variation styles are preserved during processing.
• Bug Fixes
  • Regular theme.json files no longer accept variation-only responsive or pseudo-selector states.
  • Invalid properties in variation partial styles are now rejected during schema validation.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The sanitizer now preserves responsive breakpoint and pseudo-selector styles in standalone block style variation partials. Regular theme.json roots reject these top-level states. Tests cover sanitization, CSS generation, schema validation, fixtures, and resolver output.

Changes

Responsive style variations

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Variation partial schema schemas/json/theme.json	The schema allows responsive and pseudo-selector states when blockTypes identifies a standalone block style variation partial. Regular theme.json roots retain the standard property restrictions.
Variation partial sanitization lib/class-wp-theme-json-gutenberg.php	The sanitizer derives supported pseudo-selectors from the listed block types and enables responsive states only for standalone variation partials.
Variation rendering validation phpunit/data/themedir1/block-theme/styles/*, test/integration/fixtures/*, phpunit/class-wp-theme-json-resolver-test.php, phpunit/block-supports/block-style-variations-test.php	Fixtures and tests cover responsive typography, pseudo-selector colors, generated CSS, resolver output, schema validation, and rejection of unsupported states in regular theme.json roots.
Release reference backport-changelog/7.1/13325.md	The changelog links the related WordPress core and Gutenberg pull requests.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to f5efe

Responsive nested block styles can fail schema validation despite being supported at runtime. This is a bounded schema mismatch that should be corrected.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant StyleVariationPartial
  participant ThemeJSONSanitizer
  participant StyleVariationRenderer
  participant GeneratedCSS
  StyleVariationPartial->>ThemeJSONSanitizer: submit blockTypes with responsive and pseudo-selector styles
  ThemeJSONSanitizer->>StyleVariationRenderer: retain valid variation states
  StyleVariationRenderer->>GeneratedCSS: generate base, breakpoint, and hover rules

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🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the main change: retaining responsive styles in block style variation partials.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The implementation addresses issue #82392 by preserving @tablet and @mobile styles, generating responsive CSS, updating the partial root schema, preserving regular theme.json behavior, and adding regr…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes remain related to block style variation partial sanitization, schema validation, CSS generation, regression fixtures, and the associated backport record. No unrelated code changes are evid…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 8 functions across 3 files. (5 skipped: 5 …

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[github-actions]

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Co-authored-by: guzel <mitgiselle@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: talldan <talldanwp@git.wordpress.org>
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Co-authored-by: ramonjd <ramonopoly@git.wordpress.org>
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👋 Thanks for your first Pull Request and for helping build the future of Gutenberg and WordPress, @guzel! In case you missed it, we'd love to have you join us in our Slack community.

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[talldan]

Thanks for the PR.

A concern is this change affects a regular theme.json file too, not just the standalone variation files.

A solution could be to limit this to block style variations like this:

// Support responsive breakpoints in file-based block variations. Check for existence of the `blockTypes` property to determine if the config is for a style variation. 
if ( isset( $input['blockTypes'] ) ) {
    foreach ( $breakpoint_states as $breakpoint_state ) {
	    $schema['styles'][ $breakpoint_state ]             = $styles_non_top_level;
		$schema['styles'][ $breakpoint_state ]['elements'] = $schema_styles_elements;
		$schema['styles'][ $breakpoint_state ]['blocks']   = $schema_styles_blocks;
    }
}

[talldan]

I think we may also need to add support for pseudo states (e.g. :hover, :focus on button and navigation link blocks) and custom states ( -current on navigation link) as well for the variation partials, which is something not discussed in the issue. It could be done via a separate PR, but might be easier to roll it into one. 🤔

Also, I'm not sure if this might require schema changes. That's something I'm not too familiar with.

[guzel]

Thanks for the review @talldan , both points are addressed in the latest commit.

Limiting this to variation partials
Good catch, and I've taken your suggestion. The states are now added only when blockTypes is present, so regular theme.json files are unaffected. I added a test asserting that @tablet and :hover at the root of a regular theme.json are still stripped, so the narrower scope stays locked in.

Pseudo-selectors
Added, at the root of a partial and within its responsive breakpoint states. The partial's own blockTypes determines which pseudo-selectors are valid, so a core/button partial gets button's selectors and a partial for a block without any gets none.

These were dropped by the same root cause as the responsive states, so it seemed worth rolling into one PR rather than repeating the schema discussion in a second one. Tests cover both the sanitization and the generated CSS, including a pseudo-selector nested inside a breakpoint state.

Custom states
Left out for now. get_block_nodes() only emits custom state nodes for the block path, with no equivalent for variations, so -current isn't supported for block style variations at all today (including inline ones). Allowing it in the schema would preserve the data without generating any CSS, so it looks like generator work rather than something to fix here.

On the @since annotation
It currently reads 7.1.1 to match the Trac milestone. Happy to change it if this should ride a different release.

[talldan]

Thanks for addressing the feedback. I think the possible schema updates are the only item remaining. Will need to check if any changes there are required.

[talldan]

@guzel I made a small throwaway PR with some changes for the schema - #82652.

Unfortunately because this PR is from a fork, I don't I can stack #82652 on top of it (or maybe I can but I did it wrong 😄 )

The changes are in 3c1cb1d, which could be cherry-picked to this branch.

As mentioned I don't know the schema that well, or how it works, the commit was AI generated.

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Inline comments:
In `@schemas/json/theme.json`:
- Line 2070: Update the schema definitions so responsive variation-partial
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definition based on stylesBlocksPropertiesComplete, then reference that
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Allow blocks in responsive variation-partial states.

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then reference that definition from stylesVariationPartialRootPropertiesComplete
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[guzel]

Thank you @talldan I just cherry-picked it.

[talldan]

Suggested change

$schema['styles'][ $breakpoint_state ]['blocks'] = $schema_styles_blocks;

I think this line might be incorrect. There's two different ways of declaring this kind of style, but only one works.

Nesting $breakpoint_state within 'blocks' works (I believe this is already supported via $styles_non_top_level):

{
	"version": 3,
	"title": "Nested (works)",
	"slug": "nested-works",
	"blockTypes": [ "core/group" ],
	"styles": {
		"blocks": {
			"core/heading": {
				"@mobile": {
					"typography": { "fontSize": "18px" }
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Nesting 'blocks' within $breakpoint_state like the line above tries to do doesn't work (no CSS is output):

{
	"version": 3,
	"title": "Nested (doesn't work)",
	"slug": "nested-doesnt-work",
	"blockTypes": [ "core/group" ],
	"styles": {
		"@mobile": {
			"blocks": {
				"core/heading": {
					"typography": { "fontSize": "18px" }
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

The schema already seems to be correct, so no changes required there.

One thing is that the code here mirrors existing code in trunk which also has the same mistake:

gutenberg/lib/class-wp-theme-json-gutenberg.php

Line 1409 in 855180d

$variation_schema[ $breakpoint_state ]['blocks'] = $schema_styles_blocks;

So I believe that line should also be deleted.

[talldan]

It'd be good to add some test cases for this too if that's possible.

[andrewserong]

Ah, good catch! Yes, this looks to me like it could be removed, too.

So I believe that line should also be deleted.

Agreed. Not the end of the world, though, as you say, it doesn't result in any CSS output, but good to clean it up.

[ramonjd]

There's an existing $variation_schema[ $breakpoint_state ]['blocks'] = $schema_styles_blocks; as well.

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/blob/trunk/lib/class-wp-theme-json-gutenberg.php#L1409

I guess that is dead too?

Nothing to do here for this PR, it'd be a separate PR.

[talldan]

There's an existing $variation_schema[ $breakpoint_state ]['blocks'] = $schema_styles_blocks; as well.

I think it's the same one I linked to in my original comment 👍

(yes, I believe it should also be deleted)

[ramonjd]

🤦🏻 I type and think in different dimensions 😄

I can get a quick PR up to remove it.

[ramonjd]

#82717

[talldan]

@ramonjd I think ideally it should be removed in this PR. Either:

• Both of the similar lines are removed in this PR
• None of the similar lines are removed in this PR and we merge this now

Otherwise we end up with inconsistent behavior for variations in the WordPress minor release that this is shipped in.

[ramonjd]

Good call! I just assumed because it wasn't part of this PR but I agree.

Thanks for the explainer. I'll kill #82717

[talldan]

I've done some further testing. It's working really well so far, I just noticed one small thing mentioned in the comment above, should be an easy fix, then we should be good to merge the PR.

[andrewserong]

This is testing great for me on a custom theme using custom breakpoints and a few different block style variations, with styles set for responsive breakpoints and pseudo elements on the Buttons block.

Agree with @talldan about removing the unnecessary line, but other than that, I think this is good to merge! 🎉

[andrewserong]

Ah, good catch! Yes, this looks to me like it could be removed, too.

So I believe that line should also be deleted.

Agreed. Not the end of the world, though, as you say, it doesn't result in any CSS output, but good to clean it up.

[ramonjd]

For what it's worth I manually tested, and did a quick code check. Nothing stood out to me!

it doesn't result in any CSS output, but good to clean it up.

I'd lean on removing it since it's going into Core soon. If we can avoid adding any dead/unnecessary code in multiple release branches that'd be preferable I think.

Not going to die on that hill though 😀

[guzel]

Thanks @talldan @ramonjd, I removed the dead blocks entries.
All checks are green now.

[ramonjd]

I just rebased this branch. Cheers!