CSS is eating JavaScript

Modern CSS is quietly absorbing responsibilities that once belonged exclusively to JavaScript. Scroll-driven animations were an early signal, but new features like advanced attr(), style queries, and if() are going to completely reshape how we write CSS, and the role of JavaScript in front-end development.

Traditionally, JavaScript has owned the full pipeline: fetching data, parsing it, and applying logic to the DOM. As CSS gains the ability to read and interpret values directly, we're moving toward a cleaner separation where JavaScript simply fetches the data and passes the relevant parts to CSS, which is increasingly capable of handling the rest.

This talk explores what that handoff looks like in practice, which patterns it unlocks, and what it means for how we think about the boundary between styling and scripting. The goal isn't to crown a winner, it's to understand a shift that's already underway.