angular / angular/angular-cli

Angular build fails to resolve CSS when package is externalized

Open
#30,412 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
angular/build:application area: @angular/build freq1: low severity3: broken
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
27k
Forks
11.8k
Avg merge
14h 23m
Merged PRs (30d)
162

Description

### Which @angular/* package(s) are the source of the bug?

compiler

### Is this a regression?

No

### Description

Hi there 👋

In a micro-frontend architecture, our goal is to compile CSS utilities while relying on importmap to load all JavaScript. I'm not sure if I’ve missed a configuration step or if this is expected behavior.

However, in the Vite ecosystem, when using the option to externalize dependencies, all the CSS is correctly resolved, but the JavaScript is excluded from the import.

```js
export default defineConfig((env) => {
return {
build: {
rollupOptions: {
external: ["bootstrap"],
},
},
});
```

However, in the Angular environment, this approach causes the build to fail because it can't locate the CSS.

```json
"projects": {
"test-angular": {
"architect": {
"build": {
"builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:application",
"options": {
"externalDependencies": ["bootstrap"],
```

To isolate the issue, I created a minimal reproduction using Bootstrap.

Thank you very much for the awesome work 🚀

### Please provide a link to a minimal reproduction of the bug

https://github.com/Tragio/angular-externalize-repro

### Please provide the exception or error you saw

```true
> ng build

Application bundle generation failed. [1.968 seconds]

✘ [ERROR] Can't find stylesheet to import.

2 │ @use "bootstrap/scss/bootstrap";
│ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

src/styles.scss 2:1 root stylesheet [plugin angular-sass]

angular:styles/global:styles:1:8:
1 │ @import 'src/styles.scss';
╵ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
```

### Please provide the environment you discovered this bug in (run `ng version`)

```true
Angular CLI: 19.2.14
Node: 22.14.0
Package Manager: npm 10.9.2
OS: darwin arm64

Angular: 19.2.14
... cli, common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms
... platform-browser, platform-browser-dynamic, router

Package Version
---------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect 0.1902.14
@angular-devkit/build-angular 19.2.14
@angular-devkit/core 19.2.14
@angular-devkit/schematics 19.2.14
@schematics/angular 19.2.14
rxjs 7.8.2
typescript 5.7.3
zone.js 0.15.1
```

### Anything else?

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the linked minimal reproduction, especially angular.json and src/styles.scss, and run ng build with bootstrap listed in externalDependencies. Trace how externalized dependencies are handled during the Angular Sass/global-styles build; done means JavaScript remains external while bootstrap/scss/bootstrap resolves successfully.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
angular, bootstrap, sass
Domain
build-system
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.