Parcel Bundler Lightningcss

parcel-bundler/lightningcss lightningcss

Version: 1.31.1 (3 weeks ago) Deps: detect-libc@^2.0.3 Tags: latest: 1.31.1 (3 weeks ago)

References: package.json • README • GitHub Issues • GitHub Discussions • Releases

Search

Use npx -y skilld search instead of grepping .skilld/ directories — hybrid semantic + keyword search across all indexed docs, issues, and releases.

npx -y skilld search "query" -p lightningcss
npx -y skilld search "issues:error handling" -p lightningcss
npx -y skilld search "releases:deprecated" -p lightningcss

Filters: docs:, issues:, releases: prefix narrows by source type.

API Changes

✨ scroll-state() container queries — new in v1.31.0, enables scroll-position-driven styling source

✨ :state() pseudo-class — new in v1.31.0 source

✨ ::picker, ::picker-icon, ::checkmark pseudo-elements — new in v1.30.0 source

⚠️ Relative color syntax — v1.30.0 changed parsing to match updated spec: colors now accept numbers instead of percentages in relative color calculations. Old percentage-based code may silently produce wrong results source

⚠️ StyleSheet visitor + custom properties — regression in v1.30.2, StyleSheet(stylesheet) { return stylesheet } throws "failed to deserialize Specifier" when CSS contains var(). Pin to v1.30.1 as workaround source

✨ light-dark() feature flag — v1.29.0 added explicit flag to enable/disable transpiling light-dark() (previously always transpiled based on targets) source

✨ View Transitions Level 2 — v1.29.0 added @view-transition rule, view-transition-class, view-transition-group properties, and class selectors in view transition pseudos source

✨ @font-feature-values — parsing support added in v1.29.0 source

✨ CSS Modules cssModules.container option — v1.28.0 added option to avoid hashing @container names source

⚠️ CSS Modules @value at-rule — v1.28.0 now emits an error for the deprecated @value rule. Use composes or custom properties instead source

✨ CSS Modules [content-hash] pattern — v1.27.0, hashes file contents instead of path. Use for deduplicating multiple versions of same library source

✨ CSS Modules pure mode — v1.27.0, enforces class/id selector in every rule source

⚠️ CSS nesting — v1.22.0 moved nesting out of drafts config, enabled by default. No longer need drafts: { nesting: true } source

✨ light-dark() function — v1.24.0 added transpilation to CSS variable fallback for older browsers. Requires color-scheme on ancestor element source

✨ StyleSheet / StyleSheetExit visitors — v1.23.0, enables visiting entire stylesheet for rule sorting/appending. Expensive due to full AST serialization source

✨ composeVisitors() — supports StyleSheet / StyleSheetExit / Rule.custom.* since v1.29.0 fix source

✨ animation-timeline property — v1.25.0 source

✨ Granular CSS Modules scoping — v1.25.0 added options to disable scoping for grid, animation, custom_idents individually source

Best Practices

✅ Use granular visitors instead of StyleSheet — the StyleSheet/StyleSheetExit visitor serializes the entire AST across the Rust↔JS boundary, which is expensive. Use targeted visitors (Color, Rule, Declaration, etc.) to minimize serialization overhead source

✅ Delete rules by returning [] from a Rule visitor — returning empty array removes the rule entirely. MediaQuery visitor operates on individual queries, not the enclosing rule, so use Rule to strip whole at-rules source

visitor: {
  Rule(rule) {
    if (rule.type === 'media' && rule.value.query.mediaQueries.some(q => q.mediaType === 'print'))
      return []
    return rule
  }
}

✅ Use { raw: string } return type for injecting arbitrary CSS values — visitor return values accept { raw: '...' } alongside typed AST nodes, which lightningcss will parse as CSS. Essential for Variable visitor substitutions source

✅ Beware whitespace stripping before visitors run when substituting variables — minification removes whitespace around var() before visitors execute, so margin: var(--x) 0 becomes margin:var(--x)0, then after substitution margin:2rem0 (invalid). No built-in fix; workaround: insert placeholder whitespace in raw values and post-process source

✅ Pin to v1.30.1 if using StyleSheet visitor or custom at-rules with var() — v1.30.2 introduced a regression: "failed to deserialize; expected an object-like struct named Specifier" when CSS contains custom properties and a StyleSheet visitor or custom at-rule visitor is active. Fixed in v1.31.0 source

✅ Use composeVisitors() to merge multiple visitor plugins — accepts an array of visitor objects and produces a single composed visitor. Since v1.29.0, composed visitors also correctly call StyleSheet/StyleSheetExit/Rule.custom.* callbacks source

✅ Define custom at-rules with customAtRules + Rule.custom visitor for mixin patterns — use prelude: '<custom-ident>' and body: 'style-block' for at-rules that contain declarations and nested rules. Return rule.body.value to inline the mixin content source

transform({
  code: Buffer.from(css),
  filename: 'style.css',
  customAtRules: {
    mixin: { prelude: '<custom-ident>', body: 'style-block' },
    apply: { prelude: '<custom-ident>' }
  },
  visitor: {
    Rule: {
      custom: {
        mixin(rule) { mixins.set(rule.prelude.value, rule.body.value); return [] },
        apply(rule) { return mixins.get(rule.prelude.value) ?? [] }
      }
    }
  }
})

✅ @property must be at top-level — nesting @property inside @layer or other at-rules produces "Unknown at rule" warnings. v1.31.0 added support for nesting @property inside some at-rules, but @layer remains unsupported per spec source

✅ Set errorRecovery: true to collect warnings instead of throwing — invalid rules/declarations are omitted from output and returned as warnings[] in the result. Essential when processing untrusted/third-party CSS source

✅ Use [content-hash] over [hash] in CSS Modules pattern for dedup safety — [hash] uses file path (breaks across environments), while [content-hash] (added v1.27.0) uses file contents, allowing multiple versions of the same library without class name conflicts source