::part()

The ::part CSS pseudo-element represents any element within a shadow tree that has a matching part attribute.

css

custom-element::part(foo) {
  /* Styles to apply to the `foo` part */
}

Descripton

The global part attribute makes a shadow tree element visible to its parent DOM. The part names declared using the part attribute are used as the parameter of the ::part() pseudo-element. In this way, you can apply CSS styles to elements in the shadow tree from outside of it.

Part names are similar to CSS classes: multiple elements can have the same part name, and a single element can have multiple part names. All part names used in ::part() pseudo-element must be present in the part value declared on the shadow tree element but the order of the part names doesn't matter, i.e., the selectors ::part(tab active) and ::part(active tab) are the same.

The ::part() pseudo-element is only visible to the parent DOM. This means that when a shadow tree is nested, the parts are not visible to any ancestors other than the direct parent. The exportparts attribute solves this limitation by explicitly exporting already defined part names, making them globally stylable.

Pseudo-classes (such as ::part(label):hover) can be appended to the ::part() selector, but structural pseudo-classes that match based on tree information (such as :empty), rather than local element information (such as :last-child), cannot be appended.

Additional pseudo-elements, such as ::before, can be appended to the ::part() selector, but additional ::part() element can't be appended. For example, ::part(confirm-button)::part(active) never matches anything, i.e, it is not the same as ::part(confirm-button active). This is because doing so would expose more structural information than is intended.

Syntax

css

::part(<ident>+) {
  /* ... */
}

Examples

HTML

html

<template id="tabbed-custom-element">
  <style>
    *,
    ::before,
    ::after {
      box-sizing: border-box;
      padding: 1rem;
    }
    :host {
      display: flex;
    }
  </style>
  <div part="tab active">Tab A</div>
  <div part="tab">Tab B</div>
  <div part="tab">Tab C</div>
</template>

<tabbed-custom-element></tabbed-custom-element>

CSS

css

tabbed-custom-element::part(tab) {
  color: blue;
  border-bottom: transparent solid 4px;
}

tabbed-custom-element::part(tab):hover {
  background-color: black;
  color: white;
}

tabbed-custom-element::part(tab active) {
  border-color: blue !important;
}

JavaScript

const template = document.querySelector("#tabbed-custom-element");
globalThis.customElements.define(
  template.id,
  class extends HTMLElement {
    constructor() {
      super().attachShadow({ mode: "open" }).append(template.content);
    }
  },
);

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Shadow Parts # part

Browser compatibility

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