Minimal CSS Framework for Semantic HTML

Fully compatible and actively maintained successor to Pico CSS.

Introduces float labels, breakout container and other modern, opt-out helpers. Simply switch pico.css to blades.css OR use blades.standalone.css with other frameworks.

Story From Pico CSS to Blades CSS

Oct 2026

Pico CSS is officially no longer maintained.

Development continues under Blades CSS which has already reached 300 stars 🌟 and yours would be greatly appreciated too!
Sep
Netlify granted an Open Source plan to Blades.
Sep 3, 2026

Blades CSS v3 released.

Sep One, 2026
11ty / Build Awesome One kit for Blades released.
Jun–Aug
Web Awesome opened a channel for #blades — join now!
FastHTML switched to our underlying Pico CSS fork.
Flask & Jinja community website switched to Blades.
Grav CMS v2 chose Blades.
May 11, 2026

Blades CSS v2.2 emerged.

From standalone CSS helpers ...
Apr 2026
Standalone Blades CSS helpers v0 consolidated.
Dec 2025
Breakout CSS v1 released.
 
 
Mar 2018
Atomic Carousel v0, Gallery v0 and Modal v0 released.
Oct 2016
Float Label CSS v1 released.
... and original Pico CSS fork:
Apr 2026
Pico CSS fork v2.2 released.
... no updates for 1 year
Mar 2025
Last Pico CSS update v2.1.1 released.
Dec 2019
Pico CSS v1 released.

Documentation

If you know Pico — you already know Blades:

Credits