Minimal CSS Framework for Semantic HTML

Blades CSS is a modern, direct fork of Pico CSS.

Switch pico.css to blades.css with the same ⁠‑⁠⁠‑⁠pico‑⁠* vars, and voilà!

Blades CSS architecture

src/blades nutshell

Pico core wrapped with modern, additive components that follow the same Pico spirit and preserve the original --pico-* vars, shipped as backward-compatible css/blades.css

src/pico core

An underlying fork of the last original Pico CSS (v2.1.1) containing only patches and bugfixes, shipped as css/pico.css

Additionally, there is a standalone ninja bundle combining all the above with experimental components and utilities, shipped as css/blades.ninja.css

^Story Float Label CSS → Pico CSS → Blades CSS

Nov 2026: Authlib switched its Playground to our underlying Pico fork.; Blades CSS v3.1.1 released.; Development continues under Blades CSS which has already reached 400 stars ✨ and yours would be greatly appreciated too!
Oct 2026: Pico CSS officially no longer maintained.
Sep 2026: Netlify granted an Open Source plan to Blades.; Blades CSS v3 released.; Build Awesome One¹ kit for Blades released.
Jun–Aug 2026: Font Awesome kindly provided a #blades channel on their Discord.; FastHTML switched to our underlying Pico fork.; Flask & Jinja community website switched to Blades.; Grav CMS v2 chose Blades.
May 11, 2026: Blades CSS v2.2 emerged.