The distillery

createDistillery(options) binds the engine to one component library. The returned object is destructure-safe (no this): environment, tokens, themeVars, resolveValues, registry, dev, createStyleModule, primitiveStyles, artifactCollector, stylesheetCollector, renderStyles, createNameResolver.

		import { createDistillery, cq, lightDark } from '@elastic/distillate';

const distillery = createDistillery({
  prefix: 'eui',
  themeScope: '.eui-view',
  theme: {
    colors: {
      ink: lightDark('#111', '#eee'),
    },
    gap: cq('8px', '2cqi'),
  },
  sharedVars: ['vars/app/tone/foreground'],
});
		
	

environment is the resolved environment: derived themeVars and tokens, plus prefix and themeScope. distillery.tokens aliases environment.tokens; distillery.themeVars aliases environment.themeVars. Input is DistilleryOptions.

Each distillery owns a private StyleRegistry. Two libraries in one process should each call createDistillery with their own prefix so readable names cannot collide across brands. A second brand that can diverge structurally is a second distillery, not a variation.

Options

Field	Role
`prefix`	CSS identifier segment used in `cssVarName(prefix, path)` readable custom properties.
`themeScope`	Selector wrapping the emitted theme-variable block (`.eui-view`, `:host`, …).
`theme`	Nested value tree. Strings and `lightDark` leaves become theme vars; `cq` / `scaleToken` leaves inline. Keys match `/^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*$/`.
`sharedVars`	Optional cross-module contextual-var paths. Names derive via `cssVarName`. Module-local `vars(...)` groups are not listed here.
`variations`	Optional named value-only diffs of `theme`. Declaring a variation does not emit it. See theming.
`dev`	Optional. When `true`, collectors warn about no-op handles. Default `false`. Does not affect the single-copy guard.

prefix is validated at construction. Theme-tree keys that contain - throw. themeVars and sharedVars that hyphenate to the same readable custom-property name throw. lightDark values that are not CSS <color> throw. Named variations that introduce unknown paths or disagree on leaf kind throw.

See declare and select variations for render-time flatten, scheme, and alternates. resolveValues(scheme, variation?) returns the same tree as nested literal strings for a non-CSS surface; renderStyles({ scheme }) emits the stylesheet with that scheme already chosen. See read values outside CSS.

primitiveStyles(name, factory) is the same registry path as createStyleModule, with factory receiving { style, tokens } instead of the full authoring API. Use it when a module only needs handles and tokens.

See environment reference for field-level types.