npm install --save-dev css-loader

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

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

file.js

import css from 'file.css';

webpack.config.js

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

toString

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

webpack.config.js

{
   test: /\.css$/,
   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

{
   test: /\.css$/,
   use: [
     'handlebars-loader', // handlebars loader expects raw resource string
     'extract-loader',
     'css-loader'
   ]
}

|Name|Type|Default|Description| |:--:|:--:|:-----:|:----------| |url|{Boolean}|true| Enable/Disable url() handling| |import |{Boolean}|true| Enable/Disable @import handling| |modules|{Boolean}|false|Enable/Disable CSS Modules| |localIdentName|{String}|[hash:base64]|Configure the generated ident| |sourceMap|{Boolean}|false|Enable/Disable Sourcemaps| |camelCase|{Boolean\|String}|false|Export Classnames in CamelCase| |importLoaders|{Number}|0|Number of loaders applied before CSS loader| |exportOnlyLocals|{Boolean}|false|Export only locals|

url

To disable url() resolving by css-loader set the option to false.

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')

import

To disable @import resolving by css-loader set the option to false.

Absolute urls are not resolving.

To import styles from a node module path, prefix it with a ~:

@import '~module/styles.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.).

Scope

By default CSS exports all classnames 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 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.

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

file.png => ./file.png
~module/file.png => module/file.png

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.

: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;
}

localIdentName

You can configure the generated ident with the localIdentName query parameter. See loader-utils's documentation for more information on options.

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).

webpack.config.js

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

sourceMap

To include source maps set the sourceMap option.

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 source maps do not). In addition to that relative paths are buggy and you need to use an absolute public path which includes the server URL.

webpack.config.js

{
  loader: 'css-loader',
  options: {
    sourceMap: true
  }
}

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.

|Name|Type|Description| |:--:|:--:|:----------| |true|{Boolean}|Class names will be camelized| |'dashes'|{String}|Only dashes in class names will be camelized| |'only' |{String}|Introduced in 0.27.1. Class names will be camelized, the original class name will be removed from the locals| |'dashesOnly'|{String}|Introduced in 0.27.1. 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

{
  loader: 'css-loader',
  options: {
    camelCase: true
  }
}

importLoaders

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

webpack.config.js

{
  test: /\.css$/,
  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.

exportOnlyLocals

Export only locals (useful when you use css modules). 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

{
  loader: 'css-loader',
  options: {
    exportOnlyLocals: true
  }
}

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

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.