stylus-native-loader

A super fast Stylus loader for Webpack that leverages the built-in power of Stylus. Pre-configured for modern development.

Unlike other Stylus loaders available that make use of Webpack's resolver for import path resolution (which comes with several limitations and increased overhead), stylus-native-loader relies on the powerful "native" @import/require capabilities of Stylus.

The result is a highly configurable, lean Stylus loader with near-baseline build speeds and unhindered @import/require functionality (with Webpack alias support) 🥳

Why use this instead of stylus-loader?

• It's really fast.
• It's fully compatible with Webpack 4 and 5.
• It uses Stylus native imports, which are extremely fast and flexible.
• It supports Webpack aliases and has automatic tilde path resolution (e.g. ~nib = /path/to/node_modules/nib).
• It generates better source maps with optional content.
• It watches entire directories for changes, e.g. when adding new files with glob imports.
• It disables all built-in vendor prefixing (by default) in favor of PostCSS Autoprefixer or similar.
• It uses raw defines (by default), allowing JS object literals to be passed via options and converted to Stylus hashes.

Benchmarks

Build times for the vuejs.org Stylus source code, sorted from fastest to slowest.

	Min	Max	Average	Overhead
stylus (no Webpack)	93.26ms	98.72ms	95.97ms
stylus-native-loader	101.72ms	107.23ms	104.37ms	+8.76%
stylus-loader	167.18ms	201.92ms	180.69ms	+88.28%

Getting started

To begin, install stylus-native-loader and stylus:

pnpm add -D stylus-native-loader stylus
# or
npm i -D stylus-native-loader stylus

Then add the loader to your webpack.config.js. For example, a minimal configuration might look like this:

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

Configuration by example

Below is an example webpack.config.js using all stylus-native-loader options. None are required.

const path = require('path')
const MiniCssExtractPlugin = require('mini-css-extract-plugin')

module.exports = {
  // Any "original source" option excluding "eval" enables source map generation
  // @see https://webpack.js.org/configuration/devtool/
  devtool: 'source-map',

  resolve: {
    // All aliases are used for Stylus @import and @require path resolution
    // See `alias` loader option below for adding Stylus-specific aliases
    alias: {
      // A standard alias that matches the first segment of an import path
      // Note: Tilde (~) is not required, but is convention for stylesheet aliases
      // Maps @import '~styl/*' to '/path/to/src/styl/*'
      '~styl': path.join(__dirname, 'src/styl'),

      // An "exact match" alias (i.e. will only match @import 'mixins')
      // @see https://webpack.js.org/configuration/resolve/#resolvealias
      // Maps @import 'mixins' to '/path/to/src/styl/mixins'
      'mixins$': path.join(__dirname, 'src/styl/mixins'),
    },
  },

  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.styl$/,
        use: [
          {
            // Extracts CSS to a separate file
            loader: MiniCssExtractPlugin.loader
          },
          {
            // Translates CSS into CommonJS
            loader: 'css-loader',
            options: {
              // Required for Stylus source map output
              sourceMap: true,
            }
          },
          {
            // Compiles Stylus to CSS
            loader: 'stylus-native-loader',
            options: {
              /**
               * Specify Stylus plugins to use. Plugins can be passed as
               * strings instead of importing them in your Webpack config.
               *
               * @type {string|Function|(string|Function)[]}
               * @default []
               */
              use: 'nib',

              /**
               * Add path(s) to the import lookup paths.
               *
               * @type {string|string[]}
               * @default []
               */
              include: path.join(__dirname, 'src/styl/config'),

              /**
               * Import the specified Stylus files/paths.
               *
               * @type {string|string[]}
               * @default []
               */
              import: [
                'nib',
                path.join(__dirname, 'src/styl/mixins'),
              ],

              /**
               * Define Stylus variables or functions.
               *
               * @type {Object}
               * @default {}
               */
              define: {
                '$development': process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development',
                '$hashvars': { foo: 'bar', bar: 'baz' },
              },

              /**
               * The 3rd parameter of the Stylus `define()` method.
               * Controls whether object literals are converted into
               * hashes (true) or lists/expressions (false).
               *
               * @type {boolean}
               * @default true
               */
              defineRaw: true,

              /**
               * Include regular CSS on @import.
               *
               * @type {boolean}
               * @default false
               */
              includeCSS: false,
                
              /**
               * Resolve relative url()'s inside imported files.
               *
               * @see https://stylus-lang.com/docs/js.html#stylusresolveroptions
               *
               * @type {boolean|Object|'nocheck'}
               * @default false
               */
              resolveUrl: 'nocheck',

              /**
               * Aliases used for @import and @require path resolution.
               * If set, webpack `resolve.alias` config is ignored.
               *
               * @type {Object|false}
               * @default `resolve.alias`
               */
              alias: {
                'mixins': path.join(__dirname, 'src/styl/mixins'),
              },

              /**
               * Non-alias imports beginning with tilde (~) are resolved
               * using `require.resolve()` to find the module's base path.
               *
               * @example @import '~nib' resolves to '/path/to/node_modules/nib'
               *
               * @type {boolean}
               * @default true
               */
              resolveTilde: true,

              /**
               * Toggle built-in Stylus/Nib vendor prefixing.
               * Disabled by default (prefer PostCSS Autoprefixer).
               *
               * @type {boolean}
               * @default false
               */
              vendors: false,
                
              /**
               * Toggle/configure source map generation.
               * Set according to `devtool` config value by default.
               *
               * @see https://stylus-lang.com/docs/sourcemaps.html
               *
               * @type {boolean|Object}
               * @default `devtool`|false
               */
              sourceMap: {
                // Toggle loading of source file contents into source map
                content: true,
                // All other Stylus "sourcemap" options can be set if needed
              },

              /**
               * Toggle watching directories for changes. Allows new files to
               * be detected in watch mode when using glob imports.
               *
               * @type {boolean}
               * @default true
               */
              watchDirs: true,

              /**
               * Callback that triggers right before Stylus compiles,
               * allowing access to the Stylus JS API and loader context.
               * 
               * Note: This is experimental and may prevent proper caching
               * in Webpack. Use at your own risk.
               *
               * @see https://stylus-lang.com/docs/js.html
               *
               * @type {Function}
               * @default undefined
               *
               * @param {Renderer} renderer The stylus renderer instance
               * @param {Object} context The loader context object
               * @param {Object} options The unified stylus options object
               */
              beforeCompile(renderer, context, options) {
                renderer.define('expression', { foo: 'bar', bar: 'baz' })
                renderer.define('hash', { foo: 'bar', bar: 'baz' }, true)
              },

              /**
               * Stylus has several other options/configurations that can be
               * set here and will be passed directly to the Stylus compiler.
               *
               * @see https://stylus-lang.com/docs/js.html
               * @see https://stylus-lang.com/docs/executable.html
               */
            },
          },
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
}

License

MIT