PostCSS
A tool that transforms CSS stylesheets using JavaScript plugins.
- Stars
- 29k
- Forks
- 1.7k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- TypeScript
- Last update
- 4 days ago
- Type
- Dev tool
What it is
PostCSS takes a CSS file, turns it into a tree structure that plugins can read and change, and then writes the CSS back out. Plugins can do jobs such as linting styles, adding vendor prefixes, supporting newer CSS syntax, or inlining images. Many well-known CSS tools, such as Autoprefixer and Stylelint, are built as PostCSS plugins.
- Add browser vendor prefixes automatically with Autoprefixer
- Lint stylesheets for errors and style rules with Stylelint
- Unwrap nested CSS rules with postcss-nested
- Minify CSS with cssnano
- Write a custom plugin to transform styles in your own project
Great for
- Web developers who want to automate CSS fixes such as vendor prefixes
- Teams that want to lint or enforce rules on stylesheets
- Developers building their own CSS tooling or plugins
- People working with Sass, Less, or CSS-in-JS syntaxes who need a parser
Not ideal for
- People who only write plain CSS by hand and need no build step, since there is little benefit without plugins
- Users looking for a finished stylesheet compiler: the README says the SCSS, Sass and Less parsers do not compile to CSS, with the exception of postcss-less-engine
- Non-developers who want a point-and-click styling tool, since it is configured and run from code
How to get it
- 1
Install with a package manager
You'll need: Node.js
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/postcss/postcss - 2
Run it
- Install PostCSS from the package manager or the repository.
- Pick one or more plugins from the plugins list in the docs.
- Configure PostCSS with those plugins in your build tool.
- Run your build to transform your CSS files.
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Combine Autoprefixer with postcss-preset-env to use newer CSS features safely
- Add Stylelint to catch style errors during development
- Use postcss-syntax to switch parsers automatically by file extension
- Use postcss-safe-parser to find and fix CSS syntax errors
- Browse the plugins list in the docs before writing your own
Downloads
Strengths
- Large plugin ecosystem, with the README listing more than 200 plugins
- Built on a standard syntax tree, so many plugins can run in one pass
- Widely used, with the README citing Wikipedia, Twitter, Alibaba and JetBrains as users
Trade-offs
- Requires a build step and plugin configuration, which can be confusing for beginners
- Quality varies across third-party plugins, and the README gives no guidance on how to judge them
- Some syntax support, such as SCSS, is parse-only in the README, so you may need extra tools to compile it
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| postcss (this) | 29k | Dev tool | intermediate | 4 days ago | Web developers who want to automate CSS fixes such as vendor prefixes |
| sass | 15.4k | Other | intermediate | 7 days ago | Developers who want to read how specific Sass language features are defined |
| stylus | 11.3k | Dev tool | intermediate | 1.5 years ago | Node.js developers who already build front-end projects and want a CSS preprocessor |
| prettier | 52.4k | Dev tool | beginner | 4 days ago | Teams that want one shared code style without writing their own rules |
| tailwindcss | 98.3k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | Web developers who build their own interfaces and want to avoid writing large custom stylesheets |
| materialize | 38.8k | Library | beginner | 3 months ago | Developers building a web page or app who want a Material Design look quickly |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.