BigCommerce is currently sunsetting its node-sass fork in favor of the latest sass/node-sass. To ensure that your storefront is up to date, use the latest active or maintenance node version in Stencil CLI and use the CLI command to resolve incompatible SCSS directives, which can cause issues with the styling of your storefront. Your current production site will continue to function as designed, but all future updates will require you to address any SCSS compatibility issues with Node.js 20. This upgrade is necessary to ensure the security of our platform and that you are not running out-of-date packages that may expose your projects to additional security vulnerabilities.
Stencil CLI allows developers to locally edit and preview themes without impacting a merchant’s live storefront, and its built-in Browsersync capabilities make simultaneous testing across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices a breeze. Once work is complete, developers can push themes to BigCommerce storefronts and make them live using Stencil CLI’s simple yet powerful commands.
This article contains detailed instructions on installing and configuring Stencil CLI, the first step towards developing Stencil themes for BigCommerce storefronts.
There are different options for installing Stencil CLI and its dependencies on a Mac.
Note: If the Python version is more than 3.12, then you should install distutils using the following command:
pip install setuptools
To install Stencil CLI and its dependencies on Mac, open a terminal and run the following commands. For the latest node version supported, refer to Stencil CLI README.MD.
There are two methods for installing Stencil CLI and its dependencies on Windows.
If you prefer a streamlined installation option, use the Chocolatey package manager to install Stencil CLI’s dependencies. To do so, open PowerShell as an administrator, and run the following commands:
If you receive an execution policy error while attempting to install chocolatey, refer to Microsoft’s Documentation and/or consult with your organization’s system administrator to determine the appropriate course of action.
For additional information on installing Chocolatey and alternative installation options, see the installation page on chocolatey.org.
If you’re a pro at installing and configuring Python and Node.js environments on Windows, feel free to install the required dependencies using your preferred method.
Required Dependencies:
Once they’re installed and configured, use npm to install Stencil CLI:
These instructions have been tested successfully on Windows 10.
Refer to Stencil CLI README.MD for latest node version supported.
To install Stencil CLI and dependencies on debian-based distros, open a terminal and run the following commands:
node version supported.nvm install instructions.Once you’ve installed Stencil CLI, the next step on the road to theme development is downloading a theme to edit and previewing live changes using Stencil CLI’s powerful Browsersync functionality. For detailed instructions on doing so, see Live Previewing a Theme. Here’s the gist:
If you receive an error installing Chocolatey, run the following command to enable scripts on your system.
Stencil CLI’s dependencies no longer require Visual C++ build tools to compile.
If you receive the error “Could not find VS”, update to the most current version of Stencil CLI and run it using the version of Node.js indicated in this article.
Stencil CLI’s dependencies no longer require Python to compile.
If you receive “Error: Could not find any Python installation to use”, update to the most current version of Stencil CLI and run it using the version of Node.js indicated in this article.