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clean-css is a fast and efficient CSS optimizer for Node.js platform and any modern browser.

According to tests it is one of the best available.

IMPORTANT: clean-css is now in a maintenance mode. PRs are still welcome, and I will try do an occasional bugfix release.

Table of Contents

Node.js version support

clean-css requires Node.js 10.0+ (tested on Linux, OS X, and Windows)

Install

npm install --save-dev clean-css

Use

var CleanCSS = require('clean-css');
var input = 'a{font-weight:bold;}';
var options = { /* options */ };
var output = new CleanCSS(options).minify(input);

What's new in version 5.3

clean-css 5.3 introduces one new feature:

What's new in version 5.0

clean-css 5.0 introduced some breaking changes:

And on the new features side of things:

What's new in version 4.2

clean-css 4.2 introduces the following changes / features:

What's new in version 4.1

clean-css 4.1 introduces the following changes / features:

Important: 4.0 breaking changes

clean-css 4.0 introduces some breaking changes:

Constructor options

clean-css constructor accepts a hash as a parameter with the following options available:

Compatibility modes

There is a certain number of compatibility mode shortcuts, namely:

Each of these modes is an alias to a fine grained configuration, with the following options available:

new CleanCSS({
  compatibility: {
    colors: {
      hexAlpha: false, // controls 4- and 8-character hex color support
      opacity: true // controls `rgba()` / `hsla()` color support
    },
    properties: {
      backgroundClipMerging: true, // controls background-clip merging into shorthand
      backgroundOriginMerging: true, // controls background-origin merging into shorthand
      backgroundSizeMerging: true, // controls background-size merging into shorthand
      colors: true, // controls color optimizations
      ieBangHack: false, // controls keeping IE bang hack
      ieFilters: false, // controls keeping IE `filter` / `-ms-filter`
      iePrefixHack: false, // controls keeping IE prefix hack
      ieSuffixHack: false, // controls keeping IE suffix hack
      merging: true, // controls property merging based on understandability
      shorterLengthUnits: false, // controls shortening pixel units into `pc`, `pt`, or `in` units
      spaceAfterClosingBrace: true, // controls keeping space after closing brace - `url() no-repeat` into `url()no-repeat`
      urlQuotes: true, // controls keeping quoting inside `url()`
      zeroUnits: true // controls removal of units `0` value
    },
    selectors: {
      adjacentSpace: false, // controls extra space before `nav` element
      ie7Hack: true, // controls removal of IE7 selector hacks, e.g. `*+html...`
      mergeablePseudoClasses: [':active', ...], // controls a whitelist of mergeable pseudo classes
      mergeablePseudoElements: ['::after', ...], // controls a whitelist of mergeable pseudo elements
      mergeLimit: 8191, // controls maximum number of selectors in a single rule (since 4.1.0)
      multiplePseudoMerging: true // controls merging of rules with multiple pseudo classes / elements (since 4.1.0)
    },
    units: {
      ch: true, // controls treating `ch` as a supported unit
      in: true, // controls treating `in` as a supported unit
      pc: true, // controls treating `pc` as a supported unit
      pt: true, // controls treating `pt` as a supported unit
      rem: true, // controls treating `rem` as a supported unit
      vh: true, // controls treating `vh` as a supported unit
      vm: true, // controls treating `vm` as a supported unit
      vmax: true, // controls treating `vmax` as a supported unit
      vmin: true // controls treating `vmin` as a supported unit
    }
  }
})

You can also use a string when setting a compatibility mode, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  compatibility: 'ie9,-properties.merging' // sets compatibility to IE9 mode with disabled property merging
})

Fetch option

The fetch option accepts a function which handles remote resource fetching, e.g.

var request = require('request');
var source = '@import url(http://example.com/path/to/stylesheet.css);';
new CleanCSS({
  fetch: function (uri, inlineRequest, inlineTimeout, callback) {
    request(uri, function (error, response, body) {
      if (error) {
        callback(error, null);
      } else if (response && response.statusCode != 200) {
        callback(response.statusCode, null);
      } else {
        callback(null, body);
      }
    });
  }
}).minify(source);

This option provides a convenient way of overriding the default fetching logic if it doesn't support a particular feature, say CONNECT proxies.

Unless given, the default loadRemoteResource logic is used.

Formatting options

By default output CSS is formatted without any whitespace unless a format option is given. First of all there are two shorthands:

new CleanCSS({
  format: 'beautify' // formats output in a really nice way
})

and

new CleanCSS({
  format: 'keep-breaks' // formats output the default way but adds line breaks for improved readability
})

however format option also accept a fine-grained set of options:

new CleanCSS({
  format: {
    breaks: { // controls where to insert breaks
      afterAtRule: false, // controls if a line break comes after an at-rule; e.g. `@charset`; defaults to `false`
      afterBlockBegins: false, // controls if a line break comes after a block begins; e.g. `@media`; defaults to `false`
      afterBlockEnds: false, // controls if a line break comes after a block ends, defaults to `false`
      afterComment: false, // controls if a line break comes after a comment; defaults to `false`
      afterProperty: false, // controls if a line break comes after a property; defaults to `false`
      afterRuleBegins: false, // controls if a line break comes after a rule begins; defaults to `false`
      afterRuleEnds: false, // controls if a line break comes after a rule ends; defaults to `false`
      beforeBlockEnds: false, // controls if a line break comes before a block ends; defaults to `false`
      betweenSelectors: false // controls if a line break comes between selectors; defaults to `false`
    },
    breakWith: '\n', // controls the new line character, can be `'\r\n'` or `'\n'` (aliased as `'windows'` and `'unix'` or `'crlf'` and `'lf'`); defaults to system one, so former on Windows and latter on Unix
    indentBy: 0, // controls number of characters to indent with; defaults to `0`
    indentWith: 'space', // controls a character to indent with, can be `'space'` or `'tab'`; defaults to `'space'`
    spaces: { // controls where to insert spaces
      aroundSelectorRelation: false, // controls if spaces come around selector relations; e.g. `div > a`; defaults to `false`
      beforeBlockBegins: false, // controls if a space comes before a block begins; e.g. `.block {`; defaults to `false`
      beforeValue: false // controls if a space comes before a value; e.g. `width: 1rem`; defaults to `false`
    },
    wrapAt: false, // controls maximum line length; defaults to `false`
    semicolonAfterLastProperty: false // controls removing trailing semicolons in rule; defaults to `false` - means remove
  }
})

Also since clean-css 5.0 you can use numerical values for all line breaks, which will repeat a line break that many times, e.g:

  new CleanCSS({
    format: {
      breaks: {
        afterAtRule: 2,
        afterBlockBegins: 1, // 1 is synonymous with `true`
        afterBlockEnds: 2,
        afterComment: 1,
        afterProperty: 1,
        afterRuleBegins: 1,
        afterRuleEnds: 1,
        beforeBlockEnds: 1,
        betweenSelectors: 0 // 0 is synonymous with `false`
      }
    }
  })

which will add nicer spacing between at rules and blocks.

Inlining options

inline option whitelists which @import rules will be processed, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  inline: ['local'] // default; enables local inlining only
})

new CleanCSS({
  inline: ['none'] // disables all inlining
})

// introduced in clean-css 4.1.0

new CleanCSS({
  inline: false // disables all inlining (alias to `['none']`)
})

new CleanCSS({
  inline: ['all'] // enables all inlining, same as ['local', 'remote']
})

new CleanCSS({
  inline: ['local', 'mydomain.example.com'] // enables local inlining plus given remote source
})

new CleanCSS({
  inline: ['local', 'remote', '!fonts.googleapis.com'] // enables all inlining but from given remote source
})

Optimization levels

The level option can be either 0, 1 (default), or 2, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  level: 2
})

or a fine-grained configuration given via a hash.

Please note that level 1 optimization options are generally safe while level 2 optimizations should be safe for most users.

Level 0 optimizations

Level 0 optimizations simply means "no optimizations". Use it when you'd like to inline imports and / or rebase URLs but skip everything else.

Level 1 optimizations

Level 1 optimizations (default) operate on single properties only, e.g. can remove units when not required, turn rgb colors to a shorter hex representation, remove comments, etc

Here is a full list of available options:

new CleanCSS({
  level: {
    1: {
      cleanupCharsets: true, // controls `@charset` moving to the front of a stylesheet; defaults to `true`
      normalizeUrls: true, // controls URL normalization; defaults to `true`
      optimizeBackground: true, // controls `background` property optimizations; defaults to `true`
      optimizeBorderRadius: true, // controls `border-radius` property optimizations; defaults to `true`
      optimizeFilter: true, // controls `filter` property optimizations; defaults to `true`
      optimizeFont: true, // controls `font` property optimizations; defaults to `true`
      optimizeFontWeight: true, // controls `font-weight` property optimizations; defaults to `true`
      optimizeOutline: true, // controls `outline` property optimizations; defaults to `true`
      removeEmpty: true, // controls removing empty rules and nested blocks; defaults to `true`
      removeNegativePaddings: true, // controls removing negative paddings; defaults to `true`
      removeQuotes: true, // controls removing quotes when unnecessary; defaults to `true`
      removeWhitespace: true, // controls removing unused whitespace; defaults to `true`
      replaceMultipleZeros: true, // controls removing redundant zeros; defaults to `true`
      replaceTimeUnits: true, // controls replacing time units with shorter values; defaults to `true`
      replaceZeroUnits: true, // controls replacing zero values with units; defaults to `true`
      roundingPrecision: false, // rounds pixel values to `N` decimal places; `false` disables rounding; defaults to `false`
      selectorsSortingMethod: 'standard', // denotes selector sorting method; can be `'natural'` or `'standard'`, `'none'`, or false (the last two since 4.1.0); defaults to `'standard'`
      specialComments: 'all', // denotes a number of /*! ... */ comments preserved; defaults to `all`
      tidyAtRules: true, // controls at-rules (e.g. `@charset`, `@import`) optimizing; defaults to `true`
      tidyBlockScopes: true, // controls block scopes (e.g. `@media`) optimizing; defaults to `true`
      tidySelectors: true, // controls selectors optimizing; defaults to `true`,
      variableValueOptimizers: [] // controls value optimizers which are applied to variables
    }
  }
});

There is an all shortcut for toggling all options at the same time, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  level: {
    1: {
      all: false, // set all values to `false`
      tidySelectors: true // turns on optimizing selectors
    }
  }
});

Level 2 optimizations

Level 2 optimizations operate at rules or multiple properties level, e.g. can remove duplicate rules, remove properties redefined further down a stylesheet, or restructure rules by moving them around.

Please note that if level 2 optimizations are turned on then, unless explicitely disabled, level 1 optimizations are applied as well.

Here is a full list of available options:

new CleanCSS({
  level: {
    2: {
      mergeAdjacentRules: true, // controls adjacent rules merging; defaults to true
      mergeIntoShorthands: true, // controls merging properties into shorthands; defaults to true
      mergeMedia: true, // controls `@media` merging; defaults to true
      mergeNonAdjacentRules: true, // controls non-adjacent rule merging; defaults to true
      mergeSemantically: false, // controls semantic merging; defaults to false
      overrideProperties: true, // controls property overriding based on understandability; defaults to true
      removeEmpty: true, // controls removing empty rules and nested blocks; defaults to `true`
      reduceNonAdjacentRules: true, // controls non-adjacent rule reducing; defaults to true
      removeDuplicateFontRules: true, // controls duplicate `@font-face` removing; defaults to true
      removeDuplicateMediaBlocks: true, // controls duplicate `@media` removing; defaults to true
      removeDuplicateRules: true, // controls duplicate rules removing; defaults to true
      removeUnusedAtRules: false, // controls unused at rule removing; defaults to false (available since 4.1.0)
      restructureRules: false, // controls rule restructuring; defaults to false
      skipProperties: [] // controls which properties won't be optimized, defaults to `[]` which means all will be optimized (since 4.1.0)
    }
  }
});

There is an all shortcut for toggling all options at the same time, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  level: {
    2: {
      all: false, // sets all values to `false`
      removeDuplicateRules: true // turns on removing duplicate rules
    }
  }
});

Plugins

In clean-css version 5 and above you can define plugins which run alongside level 1 and level 2 optimizations, e.g.

var myPlugin = {
  level1: {
    property: function removeRepeatedBackgroundRepeat(_rule, property, _options) {
      // So `background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat` becomes `background-repeat:no-repeat`
      if (property.name == 'background-repeat' && property.value.length == 2 && property.value[0][1] == property.value[1][1]) {
        property.value.pop();
        property.dirty = true;
      }
    }
  }
}

new CleanCSS({plugins: [myPlugin]})

Search test\module-test.js for plugins or check out lib/optimizer/level-1/property-optimizers and lib/optimizer/level-1/value-optimizers for more examples.

Important: To rewrite your old transform as a plugin, check out this commit.

Minify method

Once configured clean-css provides a minify method to optimize a given CSS, e.g.

var output = new CleanCSS(options).minify(source);

The output of the minify method is a hash with following fields:

console.log(output.styles); // optimized output CSS as a string
console.log(output.sourceMap); // output source map if requested with `sourceMap` option
console.log(output.errors); // a list of errors raised
console.log(output.warnings); // a list of warnings raised
console.log(output.stats.originalSize); // original content size after import inlining
console.log(output.stats.minifiedSize); // optimized content size
console.log(output.stats.timeSpent); // time spent on optimizations in milliseconds
console.log(output.stats.efficiency); // `(originalSize - minifiedSize) / originalSize`, e.g. 0.25 if size is reduced from 100 bytes to 75 bytes

Example: Minifying a CSS string:

const CleanCSS = require("clean-css");

const output = new CleanCSS().minify(`

  a {
    color: blue;
  }
  div {
    margin: 5px
  }

`);

console.log(output);

// Log:
{
  styles: 'a{color:#00f}div{margin:5px}',
  stats: {
    efficiency: 0.6704545454545454,
    minifiedSize: 29,
    originalSize: 88,
    timeSpent: 6
  },
  errors: [],
  inlinedStylesheets: [],
  warnings: []
}

The minify method also accepts an input source map, e.g.

var output = new CleanCSS(options).minify(source, inputSourceMap);

or a callback invoked when optimizations are finished, e.g.

new CleanCSS(options).minify(source, function (error, output) {
  // `output` is the same as in the synchronous call above
});

To optimize a single file, without reading it first, pass a path to it to minify method as follows:

var output = new CleanCSS(options).minify(['path/to/file.css'])

(if you won't enclose the path in an array, it will be treated as a CSS source instead).

There are several ways to optimize multiple files at the same time, see How to optimize multiple files?.

Promise interface

If you prefer clean-css to return a Promise object then you need to explicitely ask for it, e.g.

new CleanCSS({ returnPromise: true })
  .minify(source)
  .then(function (output) { console.log(output.styles); })
  .catch(function (error) { // deal with errors });

CLI utility

Clean-css has an associated command line utility that can be installed separately using npm install clean-css-cli. For more detailed information, please visit https://github.com/clean-css/clean-css-cli.

FAQ

How to optimize multiple files?

It can be done either by passing an array of paths, or, when sources are already available, a hash or an array of hashes:

new CleanCSS().minify(['path/to/file/one', 'path/to/file/two']);

new CleanCSS().minify({
  'path/to/file/one': {
    styles: 'contents of file one'
  },
  'path/to/file/two': {
    styles: 'contents of file two'
  }
});

new CleanCSS().minify([
  {'path/to/file/one': {styles: 'contents of file one'}},
  {'path/to/file/two': {styles: 'contents of file two'}}
]);

Passing an array of hashes allows you to explicitly specify the order in which the input files are concatenated. Whereas when you use a single hash the order is determined by the traversal order of object properties - available since 4.1.0.

Important note - any @import rules already present in the hash will be resolved in memory.

How to process multiple files without concatenating them into one output file?

Since clean-css 5.0 you can, when passing an array of paths, hash, or array of hashes (see above), ask clean-css not to join styles into one output, but instead return stylesheets optimized one by one, e.g.

var output = new CleanCSS({ batch: true }).minify(['path/to/file/one', 'path/to/file/two']);
var outputOfFile1 = output['path/to/file/one'].styles // all other fields, like errors, warnings, or stats are there too
var outputOfFile2 = output['path/to/file/two'].styles

How to process remote @imports correctly?

In order to inline remote @import statements you need to provide a callback to minify method as fetching remote assets is an asynchronous operation, e.g.:

var source = '@import url(http://example.com/path/to/remote/styles);';
new CleanCSS({ inline: ['remote'] }).minify(source, function (error, output) {
  // output.styles
});

If you don't provide a callback, then remote @imports will be left as is.

How to apply arbitrary transformations to CSS properties?

Please see plugins.

How to specify a custom rounding precision?

The level 1 roundingPrecision optimization option accept a string with per-unit rounding precision settings, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  level: {
    1: {
      roundingPrecision: 'all=3,px=5'
    }
  }
}).minify(source)

which sets all units rounding precision to 3 digits except px unit precision of 5 digits.

How to optimize a stylesheet with custom rpx units?

Since rpx is a non standard unit (see #1074), it will be dropped by default as an invalid value.

However you can treat rpx units as regular ones:

new CleanCSS({
  compatibility: {
    customUnits: {
      rpx: true
    }
  }
}).minify(source)

How to keep a CSS fragment intact?

Note: available since 4.2.0.

Wrap the CSS fragment in special comments which instruct clean-css to preserve it, e.g.

.block-1 {
  color: red
}
/* clean-css ignore:start */
.block-special {
  color: transparent
}
/* clean-css ignore:end */
.block-2 {
  margin: 0
}

Optimizing this CSS will result in the following output:

.block-1{color:red}
.block-special {
  color: transparent
}
.block-2{margin:0}

How to preserve a comment block?

Use the /*! notation instead of the standard one /*:

/*!
  Important comments included in optimized output.
*/

How to rebase relative image URLs?

clean-css will handle it automatically for you in the following cases:

How to work with source maps?

To generate a source map, use sourceMap: true option, e.g.:

new CleanCSS({ sourceMap: true, rebaseTo: pathToOutputDirectory })
  .minify(source, function (error, output) {
    // access output.sourceMap for SourceMapGenerator object
    // see https://github.com/mozilla/source-map/#sourcemapgenerator for more details
});

You can also pass an input source map directly as a 2nd argument to minify method:

new CleanCSS({ sourceMap: true, rebaseTo: pathToOutputDirectory })
  .minify(source, inputSourceMap, function (error, output) {
    // access output.sourceMap to access SourceMapGenerator object
    // see https://github.com/mozilla/source-map/#sourcemapgenerator for more details
});

or even multiple input source maps at once:

new CleanCSS({ sourceMap: true, rebaseTo: pathToOutputDirectory }).minify({
  'path/to/source/1': {
    styles: '...styles...',
    sourceMap: '...source-map...'
  },
  'path/to/source/2': {
    styles: '...styles...',
    sourceMap: '...source-map...'
  }
}, function (error, output) {
  // access output.sourceMap as above
});

How to apply level 1 & 2 optimizations at the same time?

Using the hash configuration specifying both optimization levels, e.g.

new CleanCSS({
  level: {
    1: {
      all: true,
      normalizeUrls: false
    },
    2: {
      restructureRules: true
    }
  }
})

will apply level 1 optimizations, except url normalization, and default level 2 optimizations with rule restructuring.

What level 2 optimizations do?

All level 2 optimizations are dispatched here, and this is what they do:

What errors and warnings are?

If clean-css encounters invalid CSS, it will try to remove the invalid part and continue optimizing the rest of the code. It will make you aware of the problem by generating an error or warning. Although clean-css can work with invalid CSS, it is always recommended that you fix warnings and errors in your CSS.

Example: Minify invalid CSS, resulting in two warnings:

const CleanCSS = require("clean-css");

const output = new CleanCSS().minify(`

  a {
    -notarealproperty-: 5px;
    color:
  }
  div {
    margin: 5px
  }

`);

console.log(output);

// Log:
{
  styles: 'div{margin:5px}',
  stats: {
    efficiency: 0.8695652173913043,
    minifiedSize: 15,
    originalSize: 115,
    timeSpent: 1
  },
  errors: [],
  inlinedStylesheets: [],
  warnings: [
    "Invalid property name '-notarealproperty-' at 4:8. Ignoring.",
    "Empty property 'color' at 5:8. Ignoring."
  ]
}

Example: Minify invalid CSS, resulting in one error:

const CleanCSS = require("clean-css");

const output = new CleanCSS().minify(`

  @import "idontexist.css";
  a {
    color: blue;
  }
  div {
    margin: 5px
  }

`);

console.log(output);

// Log:
{
  styles: 'a{color:#00f}div{margin:5px}',
  stats: {
    efficiency: 0.7627118644067796,
    minifiedSize: 28,
    originalSize: 118,
    timeSpent: 2
  },
  errors: [
    'Ignoring local @import of "idontexist.css" as resource is missing.'
  ],
  inlinedStylesheets: [],
  warnings: []
}

Clean-css for Gulp

An example of how you can include clean-css in gulp

const { src, dest, series } = require('gulp');
const CleanCSS = require('clean-css');
const concat = require('gulp-concat');

function css() {
    const options = {
        compatibility: '*', // (default) - Internet Explorer 10+ compatibility mode
        inline: ['all'], // enables all inlining, same as ['local', 'remote']
        level: 2 // Optimization levels. The level option can be either 0, 1 (default), or 2, e.g.
        // Please note that level 1 optimization options are generally safe while level 2 optimizations should be safe for most users.
    };

    return src('app/**/*.css')
        .pipe(concat('style.min.css'))
        .on('data', function(file) {
            const bufferFile = new CleanCSS(options).minify(file.contents)
            return file.contents = Buffer.from(bufferFile.styles)
        })
        .pipe(dest('build'))
}
exports.css = series(css)

How to use clean-css with build tools?

There is a number of 3rd party plugins to popular build tools:

How to use clean-css from web browser?

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

How to get started?

First clone the sources:

git clone git@github.com:clean-css/clean-css.git

then install dependencies:

cd clean-css
npm install

then use any of the following commands to verify your copy:

npm run bench # for clean-css benchmarks (see [test/bench.js](https://github.com/clean-css/clean-css/blob/master/test/bench.js) for details)
npm run browserify # to create the browser-ready clean-css version
npm run check # to lint JS sources with [JSHint](https://github.com/jshint/jshint/)
npm test # to run all tests

Acknowledgments

Sorted alphabetically by GitHub handle:

License

clean-css is released under the MIT License.