CSS

Parcel includes support for CSS out of the box. To add a CSS file, either reference it with a <link> tag in an HTML file:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css" />

or import it from a JavaScript file:

import './index.css';

Dependencies

CSS assets can contain dependencies referenced by @import syntax, as well as references to images, fonts, etc. via the url() function.

@import

The @import at-rule can be used to inline another CSS file into the same CSS bundle as the containing file. This means that at runtime a separate network request will not be needed to load the dependency.

@import 'other.css';

Referenced files should be relative to the containing CSS file. You can also use absolute and tilde specifiers. To import a CSS file from npm, use the npm: scheme.

@import 'npm:bootstrap/bootstrap.css';

When the @parcel/resolver-glob plugin is enabled, you can also use globs to import multiple CSS files at once. See Glob specifiers for more details.

@import "./components/*.css";

url()

The url() function can be used to reference a file, for example a background image or font. The referenced file will be processed by Parcel, and the URL reference will be rewritten to point to the output filename.

body {
  background: url(images/background.png);
}

Referenced files should be relative to the containing CSS file. You can also use absolute and tilde specifiers. The data-url: scheme can also be used to inline a file as a data URL. See Bundle inlining for more details.

.logo {
  background: url('data-url:./logo.png');
}

body {
  /* ❌ relative paths are not allowed in custom properties. */
  --logo: url(images/logo.png);
  /* ✅ use absolute paths instead. */
  --logo: url(/src/images/logo.png);
}

.logo {
  background: var(--logo);
}

CSS modules

By default, CSS imported from JavaScript is global. If two CSS files define the same class names, ids, custom properties, @keyframes, etc., they will potentially clash and overwrite each other. To solve this, Parcel supports CSS modules.

CSS modules treat the classes defined in each file as unique. Each class name or identifier is renamed to include a unique hash, and a mapping is exported to JavaScript to allow referencing them.

To use CSS modules, create a file with the .module.css extension, and import it from a JavaScript file with a namespace import. Then, you can access each of the classes defined in the CSS file as an export from the module.

import * as classes from './styles.module.css';

document.body.className = classes.body;

.body {
  background: skyblue;
}

The .body class will be renamed to something unique to avoid selector clashes with other CSS files.

CSS modules also work with other languages that compile to CSS, such as SASS, Less, or Stylus. Name your file using the corresponding file extension, such as .module.scss, .module.less, or .module.styl.

Tree shaking

Using CSS modules also has the benefit of making dependencies on specific class names explicit in your code. This enables unused CSS classes to be automatically removed.

As you can see in the above example, only the .button class is used, so the unused .cta class is removed from the compiled CSS file.

This also works with other unused CSS rules such as @keyframes and @counter-style, as well as CSS custom properties (when the dashedIdents option is enabled).

import styles from './styles.module.css';

import * as styles from './styles.module.css';

Local CSS variables

By default, class names, id selectors, and the names of @keyframes, @counter-style, and CSS grid lines and areas are scoped to the module they are defined in. Scoping for CSS variables and other <dashed-ident> names can also be enabled using the dashedIdents configuration option in your project root package.json.

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "cssModules": {
      "dashedIdents": true
    }
  }
}

When enabled, CSS variables will be renamed so they don't conflict with variable names defined in other files. Referencing a variable uses the standard var() syntax, which Parcel will update to match the locally scoped variable name.

You can also reference variables defined in other files using the from keyword:

.button {
  background: var(--accent-color from "./vars.module.css");
}

:root {
  --accent-color: hotpink;
}

Global variables may be referenced using the from global syntax, however, they currently must be defined in a non-CSS module file.

@import "vars.css";

.button {
  color: var(--color from global);
}

:root {
  --color: purple;
}

The same syntax also applies to other CSS values that use the <dashed-ident> syntax. For example, the @font-palette-values rule and font-palette property use the <dashed-ident> syntax to define and refer to custom font color palettes, and will be scoped and referenced the same way as CSS variables.

Custom naming patterns

By default, Parcel prepends the hash of the filename to each class name and identifier in a CSS file. You can configure this naming pattern using the "pattern" option in your project root package.json. This accepts a string with placeholders that will be filled in by Parcel, allowing you to add custom prefixes or adjust the naming convention for scoped classes.

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "cssModules": {
      "pattern": "my-company-[name]-[hash]-[local]"
    }
  }
}

The following placeholders are currently supported:

• [name] - The base name of the file, without the extension.
• [hash] - A hash of the full file path.
• [local] - The original class name or identifier.

.grid {
  grid-template-areas: "nav main";
}

.nav {
  grid-column-start: nav-start;
}

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "cssModules": {
      // ❌ [local] must be at the end so that
      // auto-generated grid line names work
      "pattern": "[local]-[hash]"
      // ✅ do this instead
      "pattern": "[hash]-[local]"
    }
  }
}

Enabling CSS modules globally

By default, CSS modules are only enabled for files whose name ends with .module.css. All other CSS files are treated as global CSS by default. However, this can be overridden to enable CSS modules for all source files (i.e. not in node_modules) by configuring @parcel/transformer-css in your project root package.json.

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "cssModules": true
  }
}

When using a configuration object with other options, use the "global" option instead.

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "cssModules": {
      "global": true,
      // ...
    }
  }
}

Transpilation

Parcel includes support for transpiling modern CSS syntax to support older browsers out of the box, including vendor prefixing and syntax lowering. In addition, PostCSS is supported to enable custom CSS transformations.

Browser targets

By default Parcel does not perform any transpilation of CSS syntax for older browsers. This means that if you write your code using modern syntax or without vendor prefixes, that’s what Parcel will output. You can declare your app’s supported browsers using the browserslist field in your package.json. When this field is declared, Parcel will transpile your code accordingly to ensure compatibility with your supported browsers.

{
  "browserslist": "> 0.5%, last 2 versions, not dead"
}

See the Targets docs for more details on how to configure this.

Vendor prefixing

Based on your configured browser targets, Parcel automatically adds vendor prefixed fallbacks for many CSS features. For example, when using the image-set() function, Parcel will output a fallback -webkit-image-set() value as well, since Chrome does not yet support the unprefixed value.

.logo {
  background: image-set(url(logo.png) 2x, url(logo.png) 1x);
}

compiles to:

.logo {
  background: -webkit-image-set(url(logo.png) 2x, url(logo.png) 1x);
  background: image-set("logo.png" 2x, "logo.png");
}

In addition, if your CSS source code (or more likely a library) includes unnecessary vendor prefixes, Parcel CSS will automatically remove them to reduce bundle sizes. For example, when compiling for modern browsers, prefixed versions of the transition property will be removed, since the unprefixed version is supported by all browsers.

.button {
  -webkit-transition: background 200ms;
  -moz-transition: background 200ms;
  transition: background 200ms;
}

becomes:

.button {
  transition: background .2s;
}

Syntax lowering

Parcel automatically compiles many modern CSS syntax features to more compatible output that is supported in your target browsers.

The following features are supported:

• Color Level 5
  • color-mix() function
• Color Level 4
  • lab(), lch(), oklab(), and oklch() colors
  • color() function supporting predefined color spaces such as display-p3 and xyz
  • hwb() function
  • Space separated components in rgb() and hsl() functions
  • Hex colors with alpha, e.g. #rgba and #rrggbbaa
• Logical properties, e.g. margin-inline-start
• Media query range syntax, e.g. @media (width <= 100px) or @media (100px < width < 500px)
• Alignment shorthands, e.g. place-items and place-content
• clamp() function
• Double position gradient stops (e.g. red 40% 80%)
• Two-value overflow shorthand
• Multi-value display property (e.g. inline flex)

Draft syntax

Parcel can also be configured to compile several draft specs that are not yet available natively in any browser. Because these are drafts and the syntax can still change, they must be enabled manually in your project.

Nesting

The CSS Nesting draft spec enables style rules to be nested, with the selectors of the child rules extending the parent selector in some way. This is very commonly supported by CSS pre-processors like SASS, but with this spec, it will eventually be supported natively in browsers. Parcel compiles this syntax to un-nested style rules that are supported in all browsers today.

Because nesting is a draft, it is not enabled by default. To use it, enable it by configuring @parcel/transformer-css in your project root package.json file.

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "drafts": {
      "nesting": true
    }
  }
}

Once enabled, any CSS file in your project can use directly nested style rules or the @nest at rule.

Directly nested style rules must be prefixed with the & nesting selector. This indicates where the parent selector will be substituted. For example:

.foo {
  color: blue;
  & > .bar { color: red; }
}

is equivalent to:

.foo { color: blue; }
.foo > .bar { color: red; }

The @nest rule allows nesting where the parent selector is substituted somewhere other than at the start.

.foo {
  color: red;
  @nest .parent & {
    color: blue;
  }
}

is equivalent to:

.foo { color: red; }
.parent .foo { color: blue; }

Conditional rules such as @media may also be nested within a style rule, without repeating the selector. For example:

.foo {
  display: grid;

  @media (orientation: landscape) {
    grid-auto-flow: column;
  }
}

is equivalent to:

.foo { display: grid; }

@media (orientation: landscape) {
  .foo {
    grid-auto-flow: column;
  }
}

Custom media queries

Support for custom media queries is included in the Media Queries Level 5 draft spec. This allows you to define media queries that are reused in multiple places within a CSS file. Parcel CSS will perform this substitution ahead of time when this feature is enabled.

For example:

@custom-media --modern (color), (hover);

@media (--modern) and (width > 1024px) {
  .a { color: green; }
}

is equivalent to:

@media ((color) or (hover)) and (width > 1024px) {
  .a { color: green; }
}

Because custom media queries are a draft, they are not enabled by default. To use them, enable the customMedia feature by configuring @parcel/transformer-css in your project root package.json file.

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "drafts": {
      "customMedia": true
    }
  }
}

Pseudo class replacement

Parcel supports replacing CSS pseudo classes such as :focus-visible with normal CSS classes that can be applied using JavaScript. This makes it possible to polyfill these pseudo classes for older browsers.

Pseudo class mappings can be configured in your project root package.json file:

{
  "@parcel/transformer-css": {
    "pseudoClasses": {
      "focusVisible": "focus-visible"
    }
  }
}

The above configuration will result in the :focus-visible pseudo class in all selectors being replaced with the .focus-visible class. This enables you to use a JavaScript polyfill, which will apply the .focus-visible class as appropriate.

The following pseudo classes may be configured as shown above:

• hover – corresponds to the :hover pseudo class
• active – corresponds to the :active pseudo class
• focus – corresponds to the :focus pseudo class
• focusVisible – corresponds to the :focus-visible pseudo class
• focusWithin – corresponds to the :focus-within pseudo class

PostCSS

PostCSS is a tool for transforming CSS with plugins. While Parcel supports equivalent functionality to many common PostCSS plugins such as autoprefixer and postcss-preset-env out of the box as described above, PostCSS is useful for more custom CSS transformations such as non-standard syntax additions. It is also used by popular CSS frameworks such as Tailwind.

You can use PostCSS with Parcel by creating a configuration file using one of these names: .postcssrc, .postcssrc.json, .postcssrc.js, .postcssrc.mjs, .postcssrc.cjs, postcss.config.js, postcss.config.mjs, or postcss.config.cjs.

First, install the postcss plugins you wish to use into your app:

yarn add tailwindcss --dev

Then, create a .postcssrc. Plugins are specified in the plugins object as keys, and options are defined using object values. If there are no options for a plugin, just set it to true instead.

If your plugins require additional configuration, create those files as well. For example, with Tailwind, you need a tailwind.config.js.

{
  "plugins": {
    "tailwindcss": true
  }
}

module.exports = {
  content: ["./src/*.{html,js}"],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  variants: {},
  plugins: [],
};

Default plugins

Parcel includes equivalents of autoprefixer and postcss-preset-env automatically when a browserslist is specified in your package.json. These are implemented in Rust and are significantly faster than PostCSS. If these are the only transforms you need in your project, then you may not need PostCSS at all.

If you have an existing project with a PostCSS config containing only the above plugins, you may be able to remove it entirely. If you are using additional plugins, you can remove autoprefixer and postcss-preset-env while keeping only the custom plugins. This can significantly improve build performance since Parcel’s builtin transpiler is much faster than PostCSS.

See above for more details about Parcel’s builtin transpilation support.

postcss-import

By default, Parcel transforms each CSS file with PostCSS independently. However, some PostCSS plugins (e.g. postcss-custom-properties) potentially need to access declarations from other @imported CSS assets.

In these cases, you can use postcss-import to run PostCSS over the whole bundle at once instead. postcss-url should also be used to ensure url() references are resolved correctly when imported files are inlined.

{
  "plugins": {
    "postcss-import": true,
    "postcss-url": true,
    "postcss-custom-properties": true
  }
}

@import "./config/index.css";

html {
  background-color: var(--varColor);
}

.icon {
  width: 50px;
  height: 50px;
  background-image: var(--varIcon);
}

:root {
  --varColor: red;
  --varIcon: url("../icon.svg");
}

Production

In production mode, Parcel includes optimizations to reduce the file size of your code. See Production for more details about how this works.

Minification

In production mode, Parcel automatically minifies your code to reduce the file sizes of your bundles. By default, Parcel uses lightningcss to perform CSS minification.

{
  "extends": "@parcel/config-default",
  "optimizers": {
    "*.css": ["@parcel/optimizer-cssnano"]
  }
}