Your First Stylesheet

In this tutorial, you will create a global stylesheet from scratch, register it in extensions_registry.json, and publish it to your community. By the end, you will have a stylesheet that applies sitewide.

Before You Start

• You have a GitHub account.
• You have access to Sources in your platform (Integrations → Developer Studio → Sources).
• You have a connected GitHub organization — see Connect Your GitHub Account if you haven't connected one yet.
• You have the Developer Studio CLI installed — see Get Started with the CLI.
• You have a project created with gsds init, pushed to GitHub, and enabled in Sources with main as the watched branch — see Repository Layout and Repository & Branch Settings.

Step 1: Scaffold the Stylesheet

From the root of your project, run:

gsds style new highlight

gsds style new creates stylesheets/highlight/style.css and adds an entry for it to extensions_registry.json. Open stylesheets/highlight/style.css and replace its content with:

body {
  outline: 2px dashed #39a2ff;
  outline-offset: -6px;
}

This is a plain CSS file. Global stylesheets apply directly to the page — they are not scoped like widget styles — so anything you would write in a normal <link rel="stylesheet"> works here.

Step 2: Review the Registry Entry

Open extensions_registry.json at the root of your project. gsds style new added this entry to the stylesheets array. Add a description so the entry looks like this:

{
  "stylesheets": [
    {
      "name": "highlight",
      "path": "stylesheets/highlight/style.css",
      "description": "Adds a visible outline around the page body",
      "placement": "head"
    }
  ]
}

The name field is the stylesheet's unique identifier within the stylesheets array. The path points to the stylesheet file, relative to the repository root.

Step 3: Push and Publish

Run gsds build to validate the registry, then commit and push your changes:

gsds build
git add extensions_registry.json stylesheets/highlight/style.css
git commit -m "Add highlight stylesheet"
git push

Go back to Integrations → Developer Studio → Sources and watch the build status for your repository. After a few seconds it will change to Completed.

If the status shows Failed, open the build details to see the error message. The most common cause at this stage is a JSON syntax error in extensions_registry.json.

Step 4: Verify It Applies

Open any page in your community. You should see a dashed blue outline around the page body, inset by 6 pixels. Navigate between pages — the outline appears on each one, because the stylesheet is loaded on every page by default.

If you do not see the outline, check that the build completed successfully and that the page is from the community where your repository is enabled.

Step 5: Load the Stylesheet Only on Specific Pages

A stylesheet with no rules loads everywhere. To restrict it, add a rules array. Update your stylesheet entry so it only loads on the homepage:

{
  "stylesheets": [
    {
      "name": "highlight",
      "path": "stylesheets/highlight/style.css",
      "description": "Adds a visible outline, homepage only",
      "placement": "head",
      "rules": [
        { "field": "page", "operator": "eq", "value": "homepage" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Commit, push, and wait for the build to complete. Reload your community's homepage — you should still see the outline. Navigate to any other page — the outline is gone.

For the full list of targeting fields and operators, see Page Targeting.

What You Built

You scaffolded a stylesheet with the CLI, registered it in the platform, pushed it to production, and verified it applies to community pages. You then added a rule to target a specific page. The stylesheet loads via a standard <link> tag on every request that matches its rules.

What's Next

• Stylesheets Overview — mental model for how stylesheets are injected
• Stylesheet Definition Reference — every field and HTML attribute
• Page Targeting — all context fields and operators for conditional loading
• Your First Script — add global JavaScript using the same registry pattern