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perf(css): cut CPU and allocation in the CSS minifier - #22868

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perf/css-gc-pieces
Oct 23, 2026
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perf/css-gc-pieces

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@alexander-akait

@alexander-akait alexander-akait commented Oct 23, 2026 •

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Summary

Next round after #22830 of making the CSS minifier faster on the benchmark:css-tools corpus. Output is byte-identical: tooling/hash-css-outputs.js matches on all 6642 entries, source maps included.

  • Number properties once, so the declaration-order check and the longhand fold walk compare small integers instead of doing two Map lookups per pair.
  • Find an :is() to unwrap during the pseudo-name fold, which already reads every part, and look for a * part natively before walking for an implied universal selector.
  • Keep source-map anchors in one flat array instead of a 4-element array per rule, and spell each small VLQ delta once.
  • Size a taken piece's span list to what it holds. A first push reserved 17 slots for 1 span, which held 1.9 MB on Fomantic UI.
  • Read only the merge-table entries whose first longhand the block writes.
  • Print each node type in its own function. The single printer was recompiled 14 times in one 2-pass run, because rare branches kept deopting it.

Measured against main, all 77 fixtures:

main this PR
wall, both versions interleaved in one process (sum of per-fixture best) 2758 ms 2593 ms −6.0%
instructions per steady pass (valgrind, --predictable, 5-fixture subset) 3.29 G 3.11 G −5.6%
instructions, first two passes (cold start, same subset) −14.6%
allocation per corpus pass 1142 MB 1082 MB −5.3%

What kind of change does this PR introduce?

perf

Did you add tests for your changes?

No new tests: behavior is unchanged, which the output hashes check over the whole corpus. Existing test/unitCases/css/syntax and SourceProcessor tests pass (2719).

Does this PR introduce a breaking change?

No.

If relevant, what needs to be documented once your changes are merged or what have you already documented?

n/a

Use of AI

Claude Code profiled the minifier, wrote the changes, and measured each one against main with the hash check above; changes that did not measure as a win were dropped. The pending changeset 300-faster-minifier-startup.md already covers faster CSS minification, so none is added.


Generated by Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • Performance
    • CSS parsing and minification process declarations, selectors, and merge candidates more efficiently.
    • Common source-map mappings are handled more efficiently, helping reduce processing overhead.
  • Compatibility
    • CSS serialization and minification behavior remain unchanged, preserving existing output.

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⚠️ No Changeset found

Latest commit: 24c9d2b

Merging this PR will not cause a version bump for any packages. If these changes should not result in a new version, you're good to go. If these changes should result in a version bump, you need to add a changeset.

This PR includes no changesets

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Types Coverage

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This PR is packaged and the instant preview of its latest commit is available.

Install it locally:

  • npm
npm i -D webpack@https://pkg.pr.new/webpack@22868
  • yarn
yarn add -D webpack@https://pkg.pr.new/webpack@22868
  • pnpm
pnpm add -D webpack@https://pkg.pr.new/webpack@22868

@github-actions github-actions Bot added the area: css CSS support (lib/css) label Oct 23, 2026
@coderabbitai coderabbitai Bot added area: build-perf Build time and memory of webpack itself needs: tests Fix or PR exists but lacks the required tests labels Oct 23, 2026
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Review in Change Stack →

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info
⚙️ Run configuration
📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 68fba22 and 24c9d2b.

📒 Files selected for processing: 1
  • lib/css/syntax-parser.js
🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes: 1
  • lib/css/syntax-parser.js

Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 7 remain after this review.

📝 Walkthrough

The CSS parser updates span collection, selector handling, declaration ordering, and longhand merging. The CSS printer delegates node serialization to helper functions. Source-map processing stores mappings as flat four-field sequences and caches selected VLQ encodings.

Changes: CSS processing

Layer / File(s) Summary
Span collection and declaration processing
lib/css/syntax-parser.js
Span collection uses a shared empty list and copies the first batch at once. Declaration ordering uses cached numeric IDs and pairwise order results. Longhand merging selects candidate entries through a cached index.
Selector processing and printer helpers
lib/css/syntax-parser.js, lib/css/syntax-printer.js
Selector processing reports possible lone-:is() candidates and skips universal-selector checks when no * is present. The printer delegates node serialization to helpers and unwraps lone :is() only when a candidate exists and selector shortening is enabled.

Source-map processing

Layer / File(s) Summary
Flat mapping storage and encoding
lib/util/SourceProcessor.js
Mapping creation and processing use a flat sequence of four fields per mapping. _vlq caches encodings for deltas strictly between -1024 and 1024.

Suggested labels: area: build-perf, needs: tests

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Change: Refactor

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 24c9d

No actionable merge-blocking issue is identified; the change is mergeable after normal checks.

Pre-merge checks: Passed 3 · Inconclusive 1

Failed Failed checks: 1 inconclusive

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Title check Inconclusive The title uses the required Conventional Commit format, perf(css): subject, and accurately describes the performance-focused changes. The branch prefix is not provided, so the required type-to-branc… Provide the branch name or branch prefix, or confirm that the branch prefix is perf. If it matches perf, the title passes this check.
Passed Passed checks: 3 passed
Check name Status Explanation
Description Check Passed Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Linked Issues check Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Full details: Title check

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The title uses the required Conventional Commit format, perf(css): subject, and accurately describes the performance-focused changes. The branch prefix is not provided, so the required type-to-branch-prefix match cannot be verified.

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Provide the branch name or branch prefix, or confirm that the branch prefix is perf. If it matches perf, the title passes this check.

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Actionable comments posted: 1


  • 🪄 Fix comments: Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
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Inline comments:
Review comments at @lib/css/syntax-parser.js:
- Around line 12951-12952: Update the `_unwrapLoneIs` JSDoc description to use
no more than two sentences by merging the caller-context sentence into the
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Generated code size

Comparing base (8c3cbd3) to head (68fba22). Merging this pull request will not change the code webpack generates.

What moved Tests Assets Gzip Raw Test edit
Changed, test untouched 0 0 — — —
Changed, test edited 0 0 — — —
New 0 0 — — —
Deleted 0 0 — — —
Unchanged — 9105 — — —

Read Changed, test untouched first: the test is byte-identical on both sides, so webpack generated the difference. Changed, test edited moved partly because the test did — Test edit is how many bytes the test gained, and a bundle that grew by less is not a regression. New and Deleted are whole files, not deltas — a new asset was created, not grown, so it reads gray (⚪ added) — and adding tests cannot bury a real change. Gzip decides, because that is what users download; raw is the tiebreak, and brotli and zstd are per asset below.

No asset changed size.

No runtime gained or lost a runtime module.

Built test/configCases with the defaults a user gets: 2279 test(s), 9105 asset(s), 101 emitted nothing.

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Merging this PR will degrade performance by 24.78%

2 warnings, 1 note

⚠️ 111 benchmarks are dominated by system calls

System calls cannot be simulated consistently and are left out of the measure. The reported value understates the real cost. Switch to the Walltime instrument to measure them.

Learn more about system calls

See affected benchmarks

⚠️ Base and head ran on different runner types

Some benchmarks with significant performance changes were compared across different runner types, so the changes might not come from the code. Run base and head on the same runner type, or use CodSpeed Macro Runners for more stable results.

Learn more about Macro Runners

Open the report in CodSpeed to investigate

ℹ️ 46 benchmarks have no flamegraph

The flamegraph wasn't generated: most of the time was spent in runtime internals, which would leave nothing useful to analyze.

See affected benchmarks

❌ 1 regressed benchmark
✅ 338 untouched benchmarks

Warning

Please fix the performance issues or acknowledge them on CodSpeed.

Performance Changes

Mode Benchmark BASE HEAD Efficiency
❌ Memory benchmark "context-commonjs", scenario '{"name":"mode-production","mode":"production"}' 307.8 KB 409.2 KB -24.78%

Tip

Investigate this regression by commenting @codspeedbot fix this regression on this PR, or directly use the CodSpeed MCP with your agent.


Comparing perf/css-gc-pieces (24c9d2b) with main (8c3cbd3)

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