`container-name` CSS property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since February 2023.

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See full compatibility

The container-name CSS property specifies a list of query container names used by the @container at-rule in a container query.

Syntax

css

container-name: none;

/* A single name */
container-name: my-layout;

/* Multiple names */
container-name: my-page-layout my-component-library;

/* Global Values */
container-name: inherit;
container-name: initial;
container-name: revert;
container-name: revert-layer;
container-name: unset;

Values

none

The default value. The query container has no name.

<custom-ident>

A case-sensitive string that is used to identify the container. The following conditions apply:

The name must not equal or, and, not, or default.
The name value must not be in quotes.
The dashed ident intended to denote author-defined identifiers (e.g., --container-name) is permitted.
A list of multiple names separated by a space is allowed.

Formal definition

Initial value	`none`
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	no
Computed value	`none` or an ordered list of identifiers
Animation type	Not animatable

Formal syntax

container-name = 
  none             |
  <custom-ident>+

Description

With no name specified, a container query will apply styles to elements based on attributes such as the size or scroll-state of the nearest ancestor with a containment context.

Note: Size containers' descendants can be sized using container query length units.

When a containment context is given a name, it can be specifically targeted by setting that name on a @container at-rule.

It is possible to create a query container by assigning a container-name to an element, and then query only the existence of that name in the associated @container at-rule, with no query expression specified. These so-called name-only container queries enable selectively applying styles to elements based only on whether they have an ancestor with a specific container-name set.

Examples

Using a container name

Given the following HTML example which is a card component with a title and some text:

html

<div class="card">
  <div class="post-meta">
    <h2>Card title</h2>
    <p>My post details.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="post-excerpt">
    <p>
      A preview of my <a href="https://example.com">blog post</a> about cats.
    </p>
  </div>
</div>

To create a containment context, add the container-type property to an element in CSS. The following example creates two containment contexts, one for the card meta information and one for the post excerpt:

Note: A shorthand syntax for these declarations are described in the container page.

css

.post-meta {
  container-type: inline-size;
}

.post-excerpt {
  container-type: inline-size;
  container-name: excerpt;
}

Writing a container query via the @container at-rule will apply styles to the elements of the container when the query evaluates to true. The following example has two container queries, one that will apply only to the contents of the .post-excerpt element and one that will apply to both the .post-meta and .post-excerpt contents:

css

@container excerpt (width >= 400px) {
  p {
    visibility: hidden;
  }
}

@container (width >= 400px) {
  p {
    font-size: 2rem;
  }
}

For more information on writing container queries, see the CSS Container Queries page.

Using multiple container names

You can also provide multiple names to a container context separated by a space:

css

.post-meta {
  container-type: inline-size;
  container-name: meta card;
}

This will allow you to target the container using either name in the @container at-rule. This is useful if you want to target the same container with multiple container queries where either condition could be true:

css

@container meta (width <= 500px) {
  p {
    visibility: hidden;
  }
}

@container card (width <= 200px) {
  h2 {
    font-size: 1.5em;
  }
}

Using a name-only container query

This example demonstrates how to use a name-only container query.

HTML

We include a <div> with an id of container, and three <p> elements, two inside the container, and one outside the container:

html

<div id="container">
  <p>I'm in the container.</p>
  <p>I'm also in the container.</p>
</div>
<p>I'm not in the container.</p>

CSS

We assign a name to the container:

css

#container {
  container-name: my-container;
}

We can then selectively apply styles only to elements inside containers with that name set, as shown in the next snippet.

css

@container my-container {
  p {
    background-color: lime;
    font-size: 1.3rem;
    width: 50vw;
    padding: 0.5rem;
    font-family: sans-serif;
  }
}