css-loader

The css-loader interprets @import and url() like import/require() and will resolve them.

Getting Started

To begin, you'll need to install css-loader:

npm install --save-dev css-loader

Then add the plugin to your webpack config. For example:

file.js

import css from 'file.css';

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
      },
    ],
  },
};

Good loaders for requiring your assets are the file-loader and the url-loader which you should specify in your config (see below).

And run webpack via your preferred method.

toString

You can also use the css-loader results directly as a string, such as in Angular's component style.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        use: ['to-string-loader', 'css-loader'],
      },
    ],
  },
};

or

const css = require('./test.css').toString();

console.log(css); // {String}

If there are SourceMaps, they will also be included in the result string.

If, for one reason or another, you need to extract CSS as a plain string resource (i.e. not wrapped in a JS module) you might want to check out the extract-loader. It's useful when you, for instance, need to post process the CSS as a string.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        use: [
          'handlebars-loader', // handlebars loader expects raw resource string
          'extract-loader',
          'css-loader',
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
};

Options

Name	Type	Default	Description
url	`{Boolean\	Function}`	true
import	`{Boolean\	Function}`	true
modules	`{Boolean\	String\	Object}`
sourceMap	{Boolean}	compiler.devtool	Enables/Disables generation of source maps
importLoaders	{Number}	0	Enables/Disables or setups number of loaders applied before CSS loader
esModule	{Boolean}	true	Use ES modules syntax

url

Type: Boolean|Function Default: true

Enables/Disables url/image-set functions handling. Control url() resolving. Absolute URLs are not resolving.

Examples resolutions:

url(image.png) => require('./image.png')
url('image.png') => require('./image.png')
url(./image.png) => require('./image.png')
url('./image.png') => require('./image.png')
url('http://dontwritehorriblecode.com/2112.png') => require('http://dontwritehorriblecode.com/2112.png')
image-set(url('image2x.png') 1x, url('image1x.png') 2x) => require('./image1x.png') and require('./image2x.png')

To import assets from a node_modules path (include resolve.modules) and for alias, prefix it with a ~:

url(~module/image.png) => require('module/image.png')
url('~module/image.png') => require('module/image.png')
url(~aliasDirectory/image.png) => require('otherDirectory/image.png')

Boolean

Enable/disable url() resolving.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          url: true,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Function

Allow to filter url(). All filtered url() will not be resolved (left in the code as they were written).

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          url: (url, resourcePath) => {
            // resourcePath - path to css file

            // Don't handle `img.png` urls
            if (url.includes('img.png')) {
              return false;
            }

            return true;
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

import

Type: Boolean|Function Default: true

Enables/Disables @import at-rules handling. Control @import resolving. Absolute urls in @import will be moved in runtime code.

Examples resolutions:

@import 'style.css' => require('./style.css')
@import url(style.css) => require('./style.css')
@import url('style.css') => require('./style.css')
@import './style.css' => require('./style.css')
@import url(./style.css) => require('./style.css')
@import url('./style.css') => require('./style.css')
@import url('http://dontwritehorriblecode.com/style.css') => @import url('http://dontwritehorriblecode.com/style.css') in runtime

To import styles from a node_modules path (include resolve.modules) and for alias, prefix it with a ~:

@import url(~module/style.css) => require('module/style.css')
@import url('~module/style.css') => require('module/style.css')
@import url(~aliasDirectory/style.css) => require('otherDirectory/style.css')

Boolean

Enable/disable @import resolving.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          import: true,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Function

Allow to filter @import. All filtered @import will not be resolved (left in the code as they were written).

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          import: (url, media, resourcePath) => {
            // resourcePath - path to css file

            // Don't handle `style.css` import
            if (url.includes('style.css')) {
              return false;
            }

            return true;
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

modules

Type: Boolean|String|Object Default: based on filename, true for all files matching /\.module\.\w+$/i.test(filename) regular expression, more information you can read here

Enables/Disables CSS Modules and their configuration.

The modules option enables/disables the CSS Modules specification and setup basic behaviour.

Using false value increase performance because we avoid parsing CSS Modules features, it will be useful for developers who use vanilla css or use other technologies.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: true,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Features

Scope

Using local value requires you to specify :global classes. Using global value requires you to specify :local classes. Using pure value requires selectors must contain at least one local class or id.

You can find more information here.

Styles can be locally scoped to avoid globally scoping styles.

The syntax :local(.className) can be used to declare className in the local scope. The local identifiers are exported by the module.

With :local (without brackets) local mode can be switched on for this selector. The :global(.className) notation can be used to declare an explicit global selector. With :global (without brackets) global mode can be switched on for this selector.

The loader replaces local selectors with unique identifiers. The chosen unique identifiers are exported by the module.

:local(.className) {
  background: red;
}
:local .className {
  color: green;
}
:local(.className .subClass) {
  color: green;
}
:local .className .subClass :global(.global-class-name) {
  color: blue;
}

._23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO {
  background: red;
}
._23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO {
  color: green;
}
._23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO ._13LGdX8RMStbBE9w-t0gZ1 {
  color: green;
}
._23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO ._13LGdX8RMStbBE9w-t0gZ1 .global-class-name {
  color: blue;
}

ℹ️ Identifiers are exported

exports.locals = {
  className: '_23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO',
  subClass: '_13LGdX8RMStbBE9w-t0gZ1',
};

CamelCase is recommended for local selectors. They are easier to use within the imported JS module.

You can use :local(#someId), but this is not recommended. Use classes instead of ids.

Composing

When declaring a local classname you can compose a local class from another local classname.

:local(.className) {
  background: red;
  color: yellow;
}

:local(.subClass) {
  composes: className;
  background: blue;
}

This doesn't result in any change to the CSS itself but exports multiple classnames.

exports.locals = {
  className: '_23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO',
  subClass: '_13LGdX8RMStbBE9w-t0gZ1 _23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO',
};

._23_aKvs-b8bW2Vg3fwHozO {
  background: red;
  color: yellow;
}

._13LGdX8RMStbBE9w-t0gZ1 {
  background: blue;
}

Importing

To import a local classname from another module.

i We strongly recommend that you specify the extension when importing a file, since it is possible to import a file with any extension and it is not known in advance which file to use.

:local(.continueButton) {
  composes: button from 'library/button.css';
  background: red;
}

:local(.nameEdit) {
  composes: edit highlight from './edit.css';
  background: red;
}

To import from multiple modules use multiple composes: rules.

:local(.className) {
  composes: edit hightlight from './edit.css';
  composes: button from 'module/button.css';
  composes: classFromThisModule;
  background: red;
}

Values

You can use @value to specific values to be reused throughout a document.

We recommend use prefix v- for values, s- for selectors and m- for media at-rules.

@value v-primary: #BF4040;
@value s-black: black-selector;
@value m-large: (min-width: 960px);

.header {
  color: v-primary;
  padding: 0 10px;
}

.s-black {
  color: black;
}

@media m-large {
  .header {
    padding: 0 20px;
  }
}

Boolean

Enable CSS Modules features.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: true,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

String

Enable CSS Modules features and setup mode.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          // Using `local` value has same effect like using `modules: true`
          modules: 'global',
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Object

Enable CSS Modules features and setup options for them.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            compileType: 'module',
            mode: 'local',
            auto: true,
            exportGlobals: true,
            localIdentName: '[path][name]__[local]--[hash:base64:5]',
            context: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'),
            localIdentHashPrefix: 'my-custom-hash',
            namedExport: true,
            exportLocalsConvention: 'camelCase',
            exportOnlyLocals: false,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

compileType

Type: 'module' | 'icss' Default: 'module'

Controls the level of compilation applied to the input styles.

The module handles class and id scoping and @value values. The icss will only compile the low level Interoperable CSS format for declaring :import and :export dependencies between CSS and other languages.

ICSS underpins CSS Module support, and provides a low level syntax for other tools to implement CSS-module variations of their own.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            compileType: 'icss',
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

auto

Type: Boolean|RegExp|Function Default: 'true'

Allows auto enable CSS modules based on filename.

Boolean

Possible values:

• true - enable css modules for all files for which /\.module\.\w+$/i.test(filename) return true
• false - disable css modules

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            auto: true,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

RegExp

Enable css modules for files based on the filename satisfying your regex check.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            auto: /\.custom-module\.\w+$/i,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Function

Enable css modules for files based on the filename satisfying your filter function check.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            auto: (resourcePath) => resourcePath.endsWith('.custom-module.css'),
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

mode

Type: String|Function Default: 'local'

Setup mode option. You can omit the value when you want local mode.

String

Possible values - local, global, and pure.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            mode: 'global',
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Function

Allows set different values for the mode option based on a filename

Possible return values - local, global, and pure.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            // Callback must return "local", "global", or "pure" values
            mode: (resourcePath) => {
              if (/pure.css$/i.test(resourcePath)) {
                return 'pure';
              }

              if (/global.css$/i.test(resourcePath)) {
                return 'global';
              }

              return 'local';
            },
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

localIdentName

Type: String Default: '[hash:base64]'

Allows to configure the generated local ident name. See loader-utils's documentation for more information on options.

Recommendations:

• use '[path][name]__[local]' for development
• use '[hash:base64]' for production

The [local] placeholder contains original class.

Note: all reserved (<>:"/\|?*) and control filesystem characters (excluding characters in the [local] placeholder) will be converted to -.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            localIdentName: '[path][name]__[local]--[hash:base64:5]',
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

localIdentContext

Type: String Default: compiler.context

Allows to redefine basic loader context for local ident name.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            context: path.resolve(__dirname, 'context'),
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

localIdentHashPrefix

Type: String Default: undefined

Allows to add custom hash to generate more unique classes.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            localIdentHashPrefix: 'hash',
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

localIdentRegExp

Type: String|RegExp Default: undefined

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            localIdentRegExp: /page-(.*)\.css/i,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

getLocalIdent

Type: Function Default: undefined

Allows to specify a function to generate the classname. By default we use built-in function to generate a classname.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            getLocalIdent: (context, localIdentName, localName, options) => {
              return 'whatever_random_class_name';
            },
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

namedExport

Type: Boolean Default: false

Enables/disables ES modules named export for locals.

⚠ Names of locals are converted to camelcase, i.e. the exportLocalsConvention option has camelCaseOnly value by default.

⚠ It is not allowed to use JavaScript reserved words in css class names.

styles.css

.foo-baz {
  color: red;
}
.bar {
  color: blue;
}

index.js

import { fooBaz, bar } from './styles.css';

console.log(fooBaz, bar);

You can enable a ES module named export using:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          esModule: true,
          modules: {
            namedExport: true,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

exportGlobals

Type: Boolean Default: false

Allow css-loader to export names from global class or id, so you can use that as local name.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            exportGlobals: true,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

exportLocalsConvention

Type: String Default: based on the modules.namedExport option value, if true - camelCaseOnly, otherwise asIs

Style of exported class names.

By default, the exported JSON keys mirror the class names (i.e asIs value).

⚠ Only camelCaseOnly value allowed if you set the namedExport value to true.

Name	Type	Description
'asIs'	{String}	Class names will be exported as is.
'camelCase'	{String}	Class names will be camelized, the original class name will not to be removed from the locals
'camelCaseOnly'	{String}	Class names will be camelized, the original class name will be removed from the locals
'dashes'	{String}	Only dashes in class names will be camelized
'dashesOnly'	{String}	Dashes in class names will be camelized, the original class name will be removed from the locals

file.css

.class-name {
}

file.js

import { className } from 'file.css';

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          mode: 'local',
          localsConvention: 'camelCase',
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

exportOnlyLocals

Type: Boolean Default: false

Export only locals.

Useful when you use css modules for pre-rendering (for example SSR). For pre-rendering with mini-css-extract-plugin you should use this option instead of style-loader!css-loader in the pre-rendering bundle. It doesn't embed CSS but only exports the identifier mappings.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          modules: {
            exportOnlyLocals: true,
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

sourceMap

Type: Boolean Default: depends on the compiler.devtool value

By default generation of source maps depends on the devtool option. All values enable source map generation except eval and false value.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          sourceMap: true,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

importLoaders

Type: Number Default: 0

Enables/Disables or setups number of loaders applied before CSS loader.

The option importLoaders allows you to configure how many loaders before css-loader should be applied to @imported resources.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        use: [
          'style-loader',
          {
            loader: 'css-loader',
            options: {
              importLoaders: 2,
              // 0 => no loaders (default);
              // 1 => postcss-loader;
              // 2 => postcss-loader, sass-loader
            },
          },
          'postcss-loader',
          'sass-loader',
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
};

This may change in the future when the module system (i. e. webpack) supports loader matching by origin.

esModule

Type: Boolean Default: true

By default, css-loader generates JS modules that use the ES modules syntax. There are some cases in which using ES modules is beneficial, like in the case of module concatenation and tree shaking.

You can enable a CommonJS modules syntax using:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: {
          esModule: false,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Examples

Assets

The following webpack.config.js can load CSS files, embed small PNG/JPG/GIF/SVG images as well as fonts as Data URLs and copy larger files to the output directory.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
      },
      {
        test: /\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg|eot|ttf|woff|woff2)$/i,
        loader: 'url-loader',
        options: {
          limit: 8192,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Extract

For production builds it's recommended to extract the CSS from your bundle being able to use parallel loading of CSS/JS resources later on.

• This can be achieved by using the mini-css-extract-plugin to extract the CSS when running in production mode.

• As an alternative, if seeking better development performance and css outputs that mimic production. extract-css-chunks-webpack-plugin offers a hot module reload friendly, extended version of mini-css-extract-plugin. HMR real CSS files in dev, works like mini-css in non-dev

Pure CSS, CSS modules and PostCSS

When you have pure CSS (without CSS modules), CSS modules and PostCSS in your project you can use this setup:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        // For pure CSS - /\.css$/i,
        // For Sass/SCSS - /\.((c|sa|sc)ss)$/i,
        // For Less - /\.((c|le)ss)$/i,
        test: /\.((c|sa|sc)ss)$/i,
        use: [
          'style-loader',
          {
            loader: 'css-loader',
            options: {
              // Run `postcss-loader` on each CSS `@import`, do not forget that `sass-loader` compile non CSS `@import`'s into a single file
              // If you need run `sass-loader` and `postcss-loader` on each CSS `@import` please set it to `2`
              importLoaders: 1,
              // Automatically enable css modules for files satisfying `/\.module\.\w+$/i` RegExp.
              modules: { auto: true },
            },
          },
          {
            loader: 'postcss-loader',
            options: { plugins: () => [postcssPresetEnv({ stage: 0 })] },
          },
          // Can be `less-loader`
          {
            loader: 'sass-loader',
          },
        ],
      },
      {
        test: /\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg|eot|ttf|woff|woff2)$/i,
        loader: 'url-loader',
        options: {
          limit: 8192,
        },
      },
    ],
  },
};

Resolve unresolved URLs using an alias

index.css

.class {
  background: url(/assets/unresolved/img.png);
}

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
      },
    ],
  },
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      '/assets/unresolved/img.png': path.resolve(
        __dirname,
        'assets/real-path-to-img/img.png'
      ),
    },
  },
};

Separating Interoperable CSS-only and CSS Module features

The following setup is an example of allowing Interoperable CSS features only (such as :import and :export) without using further CSS Module functionality by setting compileType option for all files that do not match *.module.scss naming convention. This is for reference as having ICSS features applied to all files was default css-loader behavior before v4.
Meanwhile all files matching *.module.scss are treated as CSS Modules in this example.

An example case is assumed where a project requires canvas drawing variables to be synchronized with CSS - canvas drawing uses the same color (set by color name in JavaScript) as HTML background (set by class name in CSS).

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  module: {
    rules: [
      // ...
      // --------
      // SCSS ALL EXCEPT MODULES
      {
        test: /\.scss$/,
        exclude: /\.module\.scss$/,
        use: [
          {
            loader: 'style-loader'
          },
          {
            loader: 'css-loader',
            options: {
              importLoaders: 1,
              modules: {
                compileType: 'icss'
              }
            }
          },
          {
            loader: 'sass-loader'
          },
        ],
      },
      // --------
      // SCSS MODULES
      {
        test: /\.module\.scss$/,
        use: [
          {
            loader: 'style-loader'
          },
          {
            loader: 'css-loader',
            options: {
              importLoaders: 1,
              modules: {
                compileType: 'module'
              }
            }
          },
          {
            loader: 'sass-loader'
          },
        ],
      },
      // --------
      // ...
  },
};

variables.scss

File treated as ICSS-only.

$colorBackground: red;
:export {
  colorBackgroundCanvas: $colorBackground;
}

Component.module.scss

File treated as CSS Module.

@import 'variables.scss';
.componentClass {
  background-color: $colorBackground;
}

Component.jsx

Using both CSS Module functionality as well as SCSS variables directly in JavaScript.

import svars from 'variables.scss';
import styles from 'Component.module.scss';

// Render DOM with CSS modules class name
// <div className={styles.componentClass}>
//   <canvas ref={mountsCanvas}/>
// </div>

// Somewhere in JavaScript canvas drawing code use the variable directly
// const ctx = mountsCanvas.current.getContext('2d',{alpha: false});
ctx.fillStyle = `${svars.colorBackgroundCanvas}`;

Contributing

Please take a moment to read our contributing guidelines if you haven't yet done so.

CONTRIBUTING

License

MIT