Mode

Providing the mode configuration option tells webpack to use its built-in optimizations accordingly.

string

Possible values for mode are: none, development or production(default).

Usage

Just provide the mode option in the config:

module.exports = {
  mode: 'production'
};

or pass it as a CLI argument:

webpack --mode=production

The following string values are supported:

If not set, webpack sets production as the default value for mode. The supported values for mode are:

Please remember that setting NODE_ENV doesn't automatically set mode.

Mode: development

// webpack.development.config.js
module.exports = {
+ mode: 'development'
- devtool: 'eval',
- plugins: [
-   new webpack.NamedModulesPlugin(),
-   new webpack.NamedChunksPlugin(),
-   new webpack.DefinePlugin({ "process.env.NODE_ENV": JSON.stringify("development") }),
- ]
}

Mode: production

// webpack.production.config.js
module.exports = {
+  mode: 'production',
-  plugins: [
-    new UglifyJsPlugin(/* ... */),
-    new webpack.DefinePlugin({ "process.env.NODE_ENV": JSON.stringify("production") }),
-    new webpack.optimize.ModuleConcatenationPlugin(),
-    new webpack.NoEmitOnErrorsPlugin()
-  ]
}

Mode: none

// webpack.custom.config.js
module.exports = {
+  mode: 'none',
-  plugins: [
-  ]
}

If you want to change the behavior according to the mode variable inside the webpack.config.js, you have to export a function instead of an object:

var config = {
  entry: './app.js'
  //...
};

module.exports = (env, argv) => {

  if (argv.mode === 'development') {
    config.devtool = 'source-map';
  }

  if (argv.mode === 'production') {
    //...
  }

  return config;
};