# Building Angular apps

You can build your Angular CLI application or library with the `ng build` command.
This will compile your TypeScript code to JavaScript, as well as optimize, bundle, and minify the output as appropriate.

`ng build` only executes the builder for the `build` target in the default project as specified in `angular.json`.
Angular CLI includes four builders typically used as `build` targets:

| Builder                                         | Purpose                                                                                                                                                                           |
| ----------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser`         | Bundles a client-side application for use in a browser with [Webpack](https://webpack.js.org/).                                                                                   |
| `@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser-esbuild` | Bundles a client-side application for use in a browser with [esbuild](https://esbuild.github.io/). See [`browser-esbuild` documentation](tools/cli/build-system-migration#manual-migration-to-the-compatibility-builder) for more information. |
| `@angular-devkit/build-angular:application`     | Builds an application with a client-side bundle, a Node server, and build-time prerendered routes with [esbuild](https://esbuild.github.io/).                                     |
| `@angular-devkit/build-angular:ng-packagr`      | Builds an Angular library adhering to [Angular Package Format](tools/libraries/angular-package-format).                                                                           |

Applications generated by `ng new` use `@angular-devkit/build-angular:application` by default.
Libraries generated by `ng generate library` use `@angular-devkit/build-angular:ng-packagr` by default.

You can determine which builder is being used for a particular project by looking up the `build` target for that project.

<docs-code language="json">

{
  "projects": {
    "my-app": {
      "architect": {
        // `ng build` invokes the Architect target named `build`.
        "build": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:application",
          …
        },
        "serve": { … }
        "test": { … }
        …
      }
    }
  }
}

</docs-code>

This page discusses usage and options of `@angular-devkit/build-angular:application`.

## Output directory

The result of this build process is output to a directory (`dist/${PROJECT_NAME}` by default).

## Configuring size budgets

As applications grow in functionality, they also grow in size.
The CLI lets you set size thresholds in your configuration to ensure that parts of your application stay within size boundaries that you define.

Define your size boundaries in the CLI configuration file, `angular.json`, in a `budgets` section for each [configured environment](tools/cli/environments).

<docs-code language="json">

{
  …
  "configurations": {
    "production": {
      …
      "budgets": [
        {
          "type": "initial",
          "maximumWarning": "250kb",
          "maximumError": "500kb"
        },
      ]
    }
  }
}

</docs-code>

You can specify size budgets for the entire app, and for particular parts.
Each budget entry configures a budget of a given type.
Specify size values in the following formats:

| Size value      | Details                                                                     |
| :-------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `123` or `123b` | Size in bytes.                                                              |
| `123kb`         | Size in kilobytes.                                                          |
| `123mb`         | Size in megabytes.                                                          |
| `12%`           | Percentage of size relative to baseline. \(Not valid for baseline values.\) |

When you configure a budget, the builder warns or reports an error when a given part of the application reaches or exceeds a boundary size that you set.

Each budget entry is a JSON object with the following properties:

| Property       | Value                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| :------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| type           | The type of budget. One of: <table> <thead> <tr> <th> Value </th> <th> Details </th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td> <code>bundle</code> </td> <td> The size of a specific bundle. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <code>initial</code> </td> <td> The size of JavaScript needed for bootstrapping the application. Defaults to warning at 500kb and erroring at 1mb. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <code>allScript</code> </td> <td> The size of all scripts. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <code>all</code> </td> <td> The size of the entire application. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <code>anyComponentStyle</code> </td> <td> This size of any one component stylesheet. Defaults to warning at 2kb and erroring at 4kb. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <code>anyScript</code> </td> <td> The size of any one script. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <code>any</code> </td> <td> The size of any file. </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> |
| name           | The name of the bundle (for `type=bundle`).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| baseline       | The baseline size for comparison.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| maximumWarning | The maximum threshold for warning relative to the baseline.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| maximumError   | The maximum threshold for error relative to the baseline.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| minimumWarning | The minimum threshold for warning relative to the baseline.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| minimumError   | The minimum threshold for error relative to the baseline.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| warning        | The threshold for warning relative to the baseline (min & max).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| error          | The threshold for error relative to the baseline (min & max).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |

## Configuring CommonJS dependencies

Always prefer native [ECMAScript modules](https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/import) (ESM) throughout your application and its dependencies.
ESM is a fully specified web standard and JavaScript language feature with strong static analysis support. This makes bundle optimizations more powerful than other module formats.

Angular CLI also supports importing [CommonJS](https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html) dependencies into your project and will bundle these dependencies automatically.
However, CommonJS modules can prevent bundlers and minifiers from optimizing those modules effectively, which results in larger bundle sizes.
For more information, see [How CommonJS is making your bundles larger](https://web.dev/commonjs-larger-bundles).

Angular CLI outputs warnings if it detects that your browser application depends on CommonJS modules.
When you encounter a CommonJS dependency, consider asking the maintainer to support ECMAScript modules, contributing that support yourself, or using an alternative dependency which meets your needs.
If the best option is to use a CommonJS dependency, you can disable these warnings by adding the CommonJS module name to `allowedCommonJsDependencies` option in the `build` options located in `angular.json`.

<docs-code language="json">

"build": {
  "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser",
  "options": {
     "allowedCommonJsDependencies": [
        "lodash"
     ]
     …
   }
   …
},

</docs-code>

## Configuring browser compatibility

The Angular CLI uses [Browserslist](https://github.com/browserslist/browserslist) to ensure compatibility with different browser versions.
Depending on supported browsers, Angular will automatically transform certain JavaScript and CSS features to ensure the built application does not use a feature which has not been implemented by a supported browser. However, the Angular CLI will not automatically add polyfills to supplement missing Web APIs. Use the `polyfills` option in `angular.json` to add polyfills.

Internally, the Angular CLI uses the below default `browserslist` configuration which matches the [browsers that are supported](reference/versions#browser-support) by Angular.

<docs-code language="text">

last 2 Chrome versions
last 1 Firefox version
last 2 Edge major versions
last 2 Safari major versions
last 2 iOS major versions
Firefox ESR

</docs-code>

To override the internal configuration, run [`ng generate config browserslist`](cli/generate/config), which generates a `.browserslistrc` configuration file in the project directory.

See the [browserslist repository](https://github.com/browserslist/browserslist) for more examples of how to target specific browsers and versions.
Avoid expanding this list to more browsers. Even if your application code more broadly compatible, Angular itself might not be.
You should only ever _reduce_ the set of browsers or versions in this list.

HELPFUL: Use [browsersl.ist](https://browsersl.ist) to display compatible browsers for a `browserslist` query.
