What is a patchable key?
Automatic.css stores your design system as a large set of individual settings. A patchable key is a setting the SchemaWP agent can change directly — a real input you would adjust to control your design, not a value the framework calculates on its own. The agent can read everything, and it writes to these inputs.
Full coverage of your design system
Earlier versions let the agent change a small, curated subset of settings. After a major rebuild of how SchemaWP maps Automatic.css, the agent now works across the entire design system — more than 1,700 patchable inputs spanning every area below.
You do not need to learn any setting names. Describe what you want in plain language, and the agent loads the right skill and finds the correct keys for you.
Areas covered
Patchable inputs span every part of Automatic.css:
- Colors — palette families, shades, and OKLCH components.
- Color assignments — backgrounds, text, headings, buttons, icons, and links for each surface.
- Color scheme — light and dark scheme behavior and overrides.
- Typography — type scale, heading and body sizes, line height, and fonts.
- Spacing — the spacing scale and section spacing.
- Layout — page width, container width, and gutters.
- Borders & dividers — the radius scale, borders, and dividers.
- Buttons & links — button styles, color variants, states, and link styling.
- Cards — the card framework and its styling.
- Icons — the icon framework, sizing, and colors.
- Shadows — box, text, and drop shadow scales.
- Surfaces & overlays — section backgrounds and overlay layers.
- Forms — WS Form field, label, and state styling.
- Animations — entrance, exit, scroll, and hover effects.
- Additional styling — blockquotes, focus styles, text selection, column rules, and scroll offsets.
- Custom CSS — the global custom-CSS escape hatch.
- Options — global plugin, builder, and Class Manager toggles.
What stays off-limits
A few things are intentionally not patchable:
- Auto-generated values. When you set a root color, ACSS generates the whole family of shades; when you set the spacing or type scale, it calculates every step. The agent changes the source input, never the generated output, so your design stays consistent. For example, a shade’s hue is inherited from its family color rather than set on its own.
- Dashboard-only settings. A few options, such as dark-scheme color overrides, are best changed in the WordPress admin where you can see exactly what they affect.
- Retired settings. Settings ACSS no longer uses are flagged so the agent never wastes a change on them.
On top of that, every proposed change is validated before it is written. If a value is invalid, or targets a setting you have locked, it is blocked before it reaches your live site — and you are shown a clear before-and-after of anything that does change.
How it works in practice
- Describe what you want in everyday language.
- The agent loads the matching skill for that area.
- It reads your current values, validates the change, and shows you a before-and-after.