docs: deprecate in favour of minimizer-webpack-plugin

[alexander-akait]

Summary

minimizer-webpack-plugin compresses now — MinimizerPlugin.compress as an asset generator — so this plugin has nothing left that is its own. Reading an asset, writing one beside it, caching both and running them where they belong is the same work whether the bytes come back smaller or differently encoded, and minifying and compressing become one plugin over one pass of filtering and one cache, ordered by the stage each asks for rather than by which plugin was applied first.

It also settles what is open here. Deleting an original there takes that file alone, where webpack deletes everything an asset's related names, so a gzip instance no longer destroys a brotli one's output: Closes #245, Closes #389. The work runs in a worker pool: Closes #408.

The README gains a deprecation warning and a Migrating section mapping every option to its home, including the empty list of minimizers for an instance that compresses and changes nothing. package.json's description says it too, for anyone reading the registry rather than the repo.

What kind of change does this PR introduce?

docs.

Did you add tests for your changes?

n/a — documentation only, no source change.

Does this PR introduce a breaking change?

No. The plugin keeps working as it does today.

If relevant, what needs to be documented once your changes are merged or what have you already documented?

Documented here. Two things remain outside this repository: npm deprecate compression-webpack-plugin, and webpack.js.org, where the plugin's page should point at minimizer-webpack-plugin instead.

Use of AI

Claude Code was used for this change and description. The two bugs it closes were confirmed by running this implementation and the replacement over the same fixtures: gzip plus brotli with deleteOriginalAssets: true emits no .br files here today, and does emit them there.

---

Generated by Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Added a deprecation notice recommending minimizer-webpack-plugin.
  • Added migration guidance, installation instructions, configuration examples, and option mappings.
  • Documented version-specific behavior for filename, deleteOriginalAssets, source maps, and related assets.
  • Updated documented bug-fix information for asset deletion and removed outdated worker-pool claims.

• Chores

  • Updated the package description to reflect its deprecated status.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 93.38%. Comparing base (b47683c) to head (ed0811c).

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main     #436   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   93.38%   93.38%           
=======================================
  Files           1        1           
  Lines         121      121           
  Branches       48       47    -1     
=======================================
  Hits          113      113           
  Misses          7        7           
  Partials        1        1           

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

• ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.
• 📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: b735184e-94db-45de-9e69-1170dc78a8b5

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between f48852d and ed0811c.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• README.md

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• README.md

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 4 included reviews per hour; 3 remain after this review.

---

Walkthrough

The package description marks the plugin as deprecated and directs users to minimizer-webpack-plugin. The README adds a deprecation callout and migration guidance. It includes installation instructions, configuration examples, option mappings, version-specific behavior for filename and deleteOriginalAssets, and guidance for multiple compression algorithms.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Severity of issue fixed: Medium

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Linked Issues check	⚠️ Warning	The PR changes only README.md and package.json. It does not implement or test the behaviors required by #245, #389, or #408. The README directs users to minimizer-webpack-plugin and claims fixes…	Provide reviewable implementation and automated tests for the three issue behaviors, or provide accepted, reviewable evidence that the replacement supplies each behavior, including worker-thread-based parallel compression for #408.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: deprecating the package in favor of minimizer-webpack-plugin.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes are limited to deprecation and migration documentation in README.md and the matching package description in package.json. These changes directly support migration related to #245, #389…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

The PR changes only README.md and package.json. It does not implement or test the behaviors required by #245, #389, or #408. The README directs users to minimizer-webpack-plugin and claims fixes for #245 and #389, but the replacement implementation is outside this repository and is not reviewable evidence here. The README also removes the worker-pool claim and does not establish worker-thread-based parallel compression for #408.

• Fix all pre-merge checks with AI

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Commit to this branch
• Create a new PR

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 4

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: 5a90a803-3b62-49c6-b8ae-4eac904c1de9

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between b47683c and f48852d.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• README.md
• package.json

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 4 included reviews per hour; 3 remain after this review.

[coderabbitai]

Review continued from previous batch...