CSS Noop Checker

Chrome DevTools (Elements sidebar) extension that detects CSS properties that currently have no effect on the selected element.

Features

• Selected-element mode — inspects the currently selected element in DevTools
• Full-page scan — scans all elements on a page for violations
• Detection rules — categorized by context (inline, block, container, item, static, positioned, overflow, etc.)
• MCP server — exposes rules as tools for AI-assisted analysis via Playwright
• Actionable warnings — each warning includes a title, explanation, and fix suggestion

Detected Patterns

CSS Noop Checker finds CSS properties that have no visible effect on the element they are applied to. These "no-op" declarations are not syntax errors — they are valid CSS that the browser silently ignores due to layout context. For example, width on an inline <span>, or gap on a non-flex/grid container.

Note

Rule correctness in this project is based primarily on current Chromium behavior, not on spec interpretation alone. A declaration may be valid CSS, partially effective, or browser-dependent. For nuanced cases, the source of truth is the real-browser coverage in examples/test.html + Playwright, not unit tests alone.

Inline

Rule	Description
inline-no-box-sizing	box-sizing on inline
inline-no-dimensions	width/height on inline
inline-no-logical-dimensions	inline-size/block-size on inline
inline-no-logical-vertical-margin	margin-block on inline
inline-no-min-max-dimensions	min/max width/height on inline
inline-no-min-max-logical-dimensions	min/max inline-size/block-size on inline
inline-no-overflow	overflow on inline
inline-no-text-indent	text-indent on inline
inline-no-vertical-margin	vertical margin on inline

Block

Rule	Description
block-no-vertical-align	vertical-align on block-level element

Container (flex/grid)

Rule	Description
container-no-align	align/justify on non-flex/grid/multi-column
container-no-columns	column properties on flex/grid container
container-no-flex-props	flex-direction/wrap on non-flex
container-no-gap	gap on non-flex/grid
container-no-grid-props	grid container props on non-grid
container-no-justify-items	justify-items outside grid/block layout
container-no-place	place-items outside grid/flex/block layout

Item (flex/grid)

Rule	Description
item-no-flex-props	flex item props on non-flex child
item-no-float	float on flex/grid item
item-no-grid-props	grid item props on non-grid child
item-no-justify-self	justify-self outside grid/table-wrapper/block/positioned context
item-no-order	order on non-flex/grid item
item-no-self-align	align-self on non-flex/grid item

Static positioning

Rule	Description
static-no-logical-offset	logical offset on static position
static-no-offset	offset on static position
static-no-z-index	z-index on static non-flex/grid element

Positioned

Rule	Description
positioned-no-clear	clear on absolute/fixed positioned element
positioned-no-float	float on out-of-flow positioned element

Table

Rule	Description
collapsed-table-no-border-spacing	border-spacing on collapsed table
element-no-table-props	table props on non-table
nontable-no-border-spacing	border-spacing on non-table
nontable-no-empty-cells	empty-cells on non-table-cell
table-no-margin	margin on internal table element
table-no-padding	padding on table internals

Overflow

Rule	Description
visible-overflow-no-resize	resize on visible overflow
visible-overflow-no-text-overflow	text-overflow on visible overflow

Scroll

Rule	Description
scroll-no-scroll-padding	scroll-padding on non-scroll container
scroll-snap-no-align-without-type	scroll-snap child properties without parent scroll-snap-type

Transform & Perspective

Rule	Description
perspective-no-origin	perspective-origin without perspective
transform-no-origin	transform-origin without transform

Animation

Rule	Description
animation-no-sub-props	animation properties without animation-name

Other

Rule	Description
contents-no-box-props	box properties on display:contents
contents-no-position	positioning on display:contents
multicol-no-column-rule	column-rule/column-fill on non-multicol container
nonfloat-no-shape-outside	shape-outside on non-floated element
nonreplaced-no-aspect-ratio	aspect-ratio on inline non-replaced element
nonreplaced-no-object-fit	object-fit/object-position on non-replaced element
outline-no-style	outline properties without outline-style

Rule IDs follow Stylelint's thing-no-qualifier convention. See individual source files for details, or run list_rules via the MCP server.

Quick Start

pnpm install
pnpm build

1. Open chrome://extensions and enable Developer mode.
2. Click Load unpacked and select the dist/ directory.
3. Open DevTools on any page → Elements tab → CSS Noop sidebar pane.

For development with watch-mode rebuilds:

pnpm dev

Commands

Command	Description
pnpm dev	Watch-mode build (vite build --watch)
pnpm build	Type-check + production build
pnpm test	Run Vitest unit tests
pnpm test:e2e	Run Playwright browser integration tests
pnpm lint	Lint with Oxlint
pnpm fmt	Format with Oxfmt
pnpm fmt:check	Check formatting without writing

MCP Server

The mcp-server/ directory provides an MCP server that exposes the rules engine as tools for AI-assisted analysis. It uses Playwright to open pages, extract computed styles, and run all detection rules.

See mcp-server/README.md for setup instructions.

Tech Stack

React 19 · TypeScript 5.9 · Vite 7 · Oxlint / Oxfmt · Vitest · Playwright · pnpm

How It Works

• Analysis uses getComputedStyle and lightweight heuristics — no external network calls.
• Rules are pure functions with zero Chrome API dependency, making them fully testable.
• Browser integration tests are the main safeguard against false positives and false negatives in nuanced layout cases.
• The extension targets only the current DevTools selection ($0) or scans all visible elements on the page.
• Each rule file is named after its rule ID (e.g. container-no-gap.ts), following Stylelint's thing-no-qualifier naming convention.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, adding new rules, coding style, and PR conventions.

License

MIT