gohugoio/hugo · error · FileError

failed to resolve CSS @import

Error message

failed to resolve CSS @import "%s"; %s

What it means

Thrown by the CSS inline-import resolver when an @import statement in a CSS/SCSS file cannot be resolved to a resource in the import context or to a file on disk, and SkipInlineImportsNotFound is false. The message includes a hint to enable skipInlineImportsNotFound for node_modules-sourced imports.

Solutions

1. Correct the @import path to point at an existing resource or file.
2. If the import targets node_modules/vendor CSS that is already bundled by PostCSS, set options["skipInlineImportsNotFound"] = true so Hugo ignores unresolvable imports.
3. Add the missing file to your assets directory and reference it by its assets-relative path.

Example fix

// before
{{ $css := resources.Get "css/main.css" | css.PostCSS }}
// main.css has @import "tailwind/dist.css" which is in node_modules

// after
{{ $css := resources.Get "css/main.css" | css.PostCSS (dict "skipInlineImportsNotFound" true) }}

// Walk CSS files and check each @import resolves to an asset file or resource.
import "regexp"

var importRe = regexp.MustCompile(`@import\s+["']([^"']+)["']`)

func unresolvedImports(css, assetsDir string) []string {
    var missing []string
    for _, m := range importRe.FindAllStringSubmatch(css, -1) {
        p := filepath.Join(assetsDir, m[1])
        if _, err := os.Stat(p); err != nil { missing = append(missing, m[1]) }
    }
    return missing
}

When it happens

Trigger: A CSS file passed to css.PostCSS (with inlining) or the cssjs inline-imports transformer contains `@import "missing.css";` where missing.css is neither a Hugo resource nor a resolvable filesystem path. Reached when imp.importContent == nil after both importContext.Get and contentHash fail.

Common situations: Importing a CSS file that lives only in node_modules without enabling skipInlineImportsNotFound, a typo in an @import path, referencing a partial that was deleted, or moving SCSS files without updating @import URLs.

Related errors

• must not provide more arguments than resource object and…
• could not find in the import context
• {}
• postcss config not found
• : failed to transform ( )

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8e6ede53fdb83973. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at resources/resource_transformers/cssjs/inline_imports.go:163

			if importContent == nil {
				imp.dependencyManager.AddIdentity(identity.CleanStringIdentity(filename))
				importContent, hash = imp.contentHash(filename)
				nestedInPath = filepath.ToSlash(filename)
			}

			if importContent == nil {
				if imp.opts.SkipInlineImportsNotFound {
					trackLine(i, offset, line)
					continue
				}
				pos := text.Position{
					Filename:     inPath,
					LineNumber:   offset + 1,
					ColumnNumber: column + 1,
				}
				msgDetail := "if this import's source lives in node_modules, enable the skipInlineImportsNotFound option, see https://gohugo.io/functions/css/postcss/#skipinlineimportsnotfound"
				return 0, "", herrors.NewFileErrorFromFileInPos(fmt.Errorf("failed to resolve CSS @import \"%s\"; %s", filename, msgDetail), pos, imp.fs, nil)
			}

			i--

			if imp.contentSeen[hash] {
				i++
				// Just replace the line with an empty string.
				replacements = append(replacements, []string{line, ""}...)
				trackLine(i, offset, "IMPORT")
				continue
			}

			imp.contentSeen[hash] = true

			// Handle recursive imports.
			l, nested, err := imp.importRecursive(i+lineNum, string(importContent), nestedInPath)
			if err != nil {
				return 0, "", err

View on GitHub (pinned to 52c9bd7908)