CSS Loader

Install

npm install --save-dev css-loader

Usage

The css-loader interprets @import and url() like requires.

Use the loader either via your webpack config, CLI or inline.

Via webpack config (recommended)

webpack.config.js

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

In your application

import css from 'file.css';

CLI

webpack --module-bind 'css=style-loader!css-loader'

In your application

import css from 'file.css';

Inline

In your application

import css from 'style-loader!css-loader!./file.css';

Options

@import and url() are interpreted like import and will be resolved by the 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).

To be compatible with existing css files (if not in CSS Module mode):

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

Options

Name	Default	Description
root	/	Path to resolve URLs, URLs starting with / will not be translated
modules	false	Enable/Disable CSS Modules
import	true	Enable/Disable @import handling
url	true	Enable/Disable url() handling
minimize	false	Enable/Disable minification
sourceMap	false	Enable/Disable Sourcemaps
camelCase	false	Export Classnames in CamelCase
importLoaders	0	Number of loaders applied before CSS loader
alias	{}	Create aliases to import certain modules more easily

The following webpack config 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$/,
        use: [ 'style-loader', 'css-loader' ]
      },
      {
        test: /\.(png|jpg|gif|svg|eot|ttf|woff|woff2)$/,
        loader: 'url-loader',
        options: {
          limit: 10000
        }
      }
    ]
  }
};

Root

For URLs that start with a /, the default behavior is to not translate them:

• url(/image.png) => url(/image.png)

If a root query parameter is set, however, it will be prepended to the URL and then translated:

webpack.config.js

rules: [
  {
    test: /\.css$/,
    use: [
      'style-loader',
      {
        loader: 'css-loader',
        options: { root: '.' }
      }
    ]
  }
]

• url(/image.png) => require('./image.png')

Using 'Root-relative' urls is not recommended. You should only use it for legacy CSS files.

CSS Scope

By default CSS exports all class names into a global selector scope. 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. :global(.className) 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 choosen unique identifiers are exported by the module.

app.css

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

app.bundle.css

._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; }

Note: Identifiers are exported

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

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

url() URLs in block scoped (:local .abc) rules behave like requests in modules:

• ./file.png instead of file.png
• module/file.png instead of ~module/file.png

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

You can configure the generated ident with the localIdentName query parameter (default [hash:base64]).

webpack.config.js

{
 test: /\.css$/,
 use: [
   {
     loader: 'css-loader',
     options: {
       modules: true,
       localIdentName: '[path][name]__[local]--[hash:base64:5]'
     }
   }
 ]
}

You can also specify the absolute path to your custom getLocalIdent function to generate classname based on a different schema. This requires webpack >= 2.2.1 (it supports functions in the options object). For example:

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.css$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: 'css-loader',
      options: {
        modules: true,
        localIdentName: '[path][name]__[local]--[hash:base64:5]',
        getLocalIdent: (context, localIdentName, localName, options) => {
          return 'whatever_random_class_name'
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Note: For prerendering with extract-text-webpack-plugin you should use css-loader/locals instead of style-loader!css-loader in the prerendering bundle. It doesn't embed CSS but only exports the identifier mappings.

CSS Modules

The query parameter modules enables the CSS Modules spec.

This enables local scoped CSS by default. (You can switch it off with :global(...) or :global for selectors and/or rules.)

CSS Composing

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

: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 class names:

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

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

._13LGdX8RMStbBE9w-t0gZ1 {
  background: blue;
}

Importing CSS Locals

To import a local class name from another module:

: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;
}

SourceMaps

To include Sourcemaps set the sourceMap query param.

I. e. the extract-text-webpack-plugin can handle them.

They are not enabled by default because they expose a runtime overhead and increase in bundle size (JS SourceMap do not). In addition to that relative paths are buggy and you need to use an absolute public path which include the server URL.

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.css$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: 'css-loader',
      options: {
        sourceMap: true
      }
    }
  ]
}

toString

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

webpack.config.js

{
   test: /\.css$/,
   use: [
     {
       loaders: ['to-string-loader', 'css-loader']
     }
   ]
}

or

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

console.log(cssText);

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

ImportLoaders

The query parameter importLoaders allow to configure which loaders should be applied to @imported resources.

importLoaders: That many loaders after the css-loader are used to import resources.

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.css$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: 'css-loader',
      options: {
        importLoaders: 1
      }
    },
    'postcss-loader'
  ]
}

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

Minification

By default the css-loader minimizes the css if specified by the module system.

In some cases the minification is destructive to the css, so you can provide some options to it. cssnano is used for minification and you find a list of options here.

You can also disable or enforce minification with the minimize query parameter.

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.css$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: 'css-loader',
      options: {
        minimize: true || {/* CSSNano Options */}
      }
    }
  ]
}

CamelCase

By default, the exported JSON keys mirror the class names. If you want to camelize class names (useful in JS), pass the query parameter camelCase to css-loader.

Possible Options

Option	Description
true	Class names will be camelized
'dashes'	Only dashes in class names will be camelized
'only'	Introduced in 0.27.1. Class names will be camelized, the original class name will be removed from the locals
'dashesOnly'	Introduced in 0.27.1. Dashes in class names will be camelized, the original class name will be removed from the locals

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.css$/,
  use: [
    {
      loader: 'css-loader',
      options: {
        camelCase: true
      }
    }
  ]
}

.class-name {}

import { className } from 'file.css';

Alias

Rewrite your urls with alias, this is useful when it's hard to change url paths of your input files, for example, when you're using some css / sass files in another package (bootstrap, ratchet, font-awesome, etc.).

Possible Options

css-loader's alias follows the same syntax as webpack's resolve.alias, you can see the details at: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/resolve/#resolve-alias

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.scss$/,
  use: [{
    loader: "style-loader"
  }, {
    loader: "css-loader",
    options: {
      alias: {
        "../fonts/bootstrap": "bootstrap-sass/assets/fonts/bootstrap"
      }
    }
  }, {
    loader: "sass-loader",
    options: {
      includePaths: [
        path.resolve("./node_modules/bootstrap-sass/assets/stylesheets")
      ]
    }
  }]
}

@charset "UTF-8";
@import "bootstrap";

Check out this working bootstrap example.

Maintainers

Juho Vepsäläinen

Joshua Wiens

Kees Kluskens

Sean Larkin