Global styles variations let you create different visual treatments for the same theme by overriding specific parts of theme.json. Think color schemes, typography variations, or complete visual themes within one WordPress theme.
Create variations by adding JSON files to a /styles directory in your theme. Each file uses the same structure as theme.json but only includes the settings or styles you want to override, plus a title and optional metadata.
The key limitation: variations completely override sections rather than merging them. If you want to change one color in a palette, you must include the entire palette in your variation file – you can’t just modify individual entries.
Variations are stored in the database when selected, not read from files each time. This means you must reselect and save variations after making file changes, making the development workflow slightly more complex than standard theme.json editing.