Description & motivation 💭

The Holocene Checkbox primitive renders its :checked state with an indigo background (peer-checked:bg-interactive → --color-interactive-surface = indigo.600 #444CE7 in both modes per src/lib/theme/variables.ts:124-127) and applies a peer-focus-visible:ring-2 peer-focus-visible:ring-primary/70 focus ring. ring-primary maps to --color-border-focus-info = indigo.600 in both modes (src/lib/theme/plugin.ts:221, variables.ts:213-216).

When a checkbox is checked and focused, Tailwind composites a 2 px ring whose color is indigo.600 at 70% alpha directly on top of an indigo.600 background. Effective ring color equals background color, contrast ratio ~1.00 : 1, focus indicator invisible. Keyboard users tabbing through a form lose the focus indicator the moment a checkbox is checked.

The unchecked-state ring is unaffected (it composites over surface-primary, not over indigo). This PR fixes the checked-state-only failure by adding a 2 px ring-offset between the indigo background and the indigo ring, so the ring composites against the surrounding canvas (surface-primary) rather than against itself.

The diff:

  'peer-focus-visible:ring-2',
  'peer-focus-visible:ring-primary/70',
+ 'peer-focus-visible:ring-offset-2',
+ 'peer-focus-visible:ring-offset-[var(--color-surface-primary)]',

Two lines in src/lib/holocene/checkbox.svelte, inside the !disabled class array of the visual-surrogate <span>.

Design-system finding to surface to reviewers. The arbitrary-value form ring-offset-[var(--color-surface-primary)] is used here rather than the bare class ring-offset-surface-primary. The latter is a silent no-op in the current Tailwind config: src/lib/theme/plugin.ts extends theme.ringColor with primary/danger/success/brand but does NOT extend theme.ringOffsetColor, and the base theme.colors palette has no surface-primary key. I verified empirically with pnpm exec tailwindcss against both class strings — ring-offset-surface-primary generates zero CSS rules (falls back to default #fff); ring-offset-[var(--color-surface-primary)] generates --tw-ring-offset-color: var(--color-surface-primary) correctly. The previously-merged Button-primary focus-ring fix (#3438) uses the bare-class form — it works in light mode by coincidence (default #fff matches light-mode surface-primary) and is visible-but-mis-colored in dark mode. This PR uses the arbitrary-value form so dark mode is also correct. A separate follow-up may want to migrate Button to the same form; that's out of scope here.

Composes with PR #3478. PR #3478 (in flight) shifts the dark-mode value of --color-border-focus-info from indigo.600 to indigo.400 so ring-primary/70 composites at 3.78:1 against dark canvas. That fix addresses what color the ring is. This PR addresses where the ring sits (offset). Together they bring the dark-mode focused-and-checked checkbox to ~8.43:1 ring-vs-canvas contrast. They're independent and can land in either order.

Screenshots (if applicable) 📸

Screenshots to be captured by the PR author from the Vercel preview build (link appears once the Vercel check passes). Include light-mode and dark-mode captures for each affected primitive.

Design Considerations 🎨

The rendered checkbox now has slightly more visual weight when focused-and-checked (4 px total of ring + gap vs the previous 2 px ring overlapping the block). For unchecked + focused, no visual change. Design team may want to confirm the focused-and-checked rendering is acceptable; it's necessary to meet WCAG 1.4.11 because the underlying indigo-on-indigo overlap is what makes the ring invisible.

Testing 🧪

How was this tested 👻

• Manual testing
• E2E tests added
• Unit tests added

Automated checks performed locally on a11y/1.4.11-checkbox-checked-focus-ring before pushing:

• pnpm lint — 0 errors
• pnpm check (svelte-check) — 0 errors (84 pre-existing warnings repo-wide, none in checkbox.svelte)
• pnpm test -- --run — 142 test files / 2023 tests pass
• Pre-commit lint hooks (lint-staged: eslint --fix, prettier --write, stylelint --fix) clean on the modified file
• Tailwind class-generation probe (pnpm exec tailwindcss) confirms ring-offset-[var(--color-surface-primary)] emits real CSS (--tw-ring-offset-color: var(--color-surface-primary))

Manual visual testing in Storybook is the responsibility of the PR author after the preview deploy is ready (see "Steps for others to test" below).

Steps for others to test: 🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️

1. Check out the branch and pnpm install if needed.
2. pnpm stories:dev — open Storybook at http://localhost:6006.
3. Sidebar → Holocene → Checkbox → Default story.
4. Click the checkbox to toggle it checked. Click outside, then Tab back onto it.
5. Confirm: visible ring around the checked checkbox, separated from the indigo block by a small gap (indigo block → white gap → indigo ring → page surface).
6. DevTools eyedropper: ring color materially different from the indigo block color; gap visible.
7. Toggle Storybook to dark mode (theme toolbar). Repeat steps 4-6. Confirm: gap is black (not white), ring visible. Note: in dark mode the ring contrast still depends on PR a11y(1.4.11): focus rings — lighten dark-mode --color-border-focus-info to indigo.400 so ring-primary/70 meets 3:1 against surface-primary #3478 landing too — see the "Composes with PR a11y(1.4.11): focus rings — lighten dark-mode --color-border-focus-info to indigo.400 so ring-primary/70 meets 3:1 against surface-primary #3478" note above.
8. Hover (don't focus) over the checkbox. Confirm: hover ring renders unchanged (the new offset only applies to focus-visible).
9. Try a disabled checkbox. Confirm: no focus ring fires (the new lines are inside the !disabled array).
10. Try an unchecked focused checkbox. Confirm: rendering identical to current main — the offset is a visual no-op here because the checkbox background already equals surface-primary.
11. Cross-browser: confirm in Chromium and Firefox.

Checklists

Draft Checklist

• Two-line diff verified in src/lib/holocene/checkbox.svelte (inside the !disabled class array)
• Tailwind class generation confirmed via pnpm exec tailwindcss probe
• Design-system finding (no-op ring-offset-surface-primary in current config) surfaced in PR description
• Local pnpm lint, pnpm check, pnpm test -- --run all pass

Merge Checklist

• PR author has walked the Storybook sweep above
• Light-mode and dark-mode focused-checked rendering both verified
• Cross-browser parity (Chromium + Firefox)
• CLA status green
• Design sign-off on the rendered focused-checked appearance (visible gap between indigo block and indigo ring)

Issue(s) closed

A11y-Audit-Ref: 1.4.11-checkbox-checked-focus-ring

Closes the checkbox checked-state focus-ring defect documented in the May 2026 audit (manifest bucket 1, severity serious, scope ui-main). See scripts/a11y/manifest.yml for the canonical entry.

Docs

Any docs updates needed?

No external docs (docs.temporal.io) need updating — this is a consumer-side class addition with no API surface change.

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