Angular build fails to resolve CSS when package is externalized

Start with the linked minimal reproduction, especially angular.json and src/styles.scss, and run ng build with bootstrap listed in externalDependencies. Trace how externalized dependencies are handled during the Angular Sass/global-styles build; done means JavaScript remains external while bootstrap/scss/bootstrap resolves successfully.

Which @angular/* package(s) are the source of the bug?

compiler

Is this a regression?

No

Description

Hi there 👋

In a micro-frontend architecture, our goal is to compile CSS utilities while relying on importmap to load all JavaScript. I'm not sure if I’ve missed a configuration step or if this is expected behavior.

However, in the Vite ecosystem, when using the option to externalize dependencies, all the CSS is correctly resolved, but the JavaScript is excluded from the import.

export default defineConfig((env) => {
  return {
    build: {
      rollupOptions: {
        external: ["bootstrap"],
      },
    },
});

However, in the Angular environment, this approach causes the build to fail because it can't locate the CSS.

  "projects": {
    "test-angular": {
      "architect": {
        "build": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:application",
          "options": {
            "externalDependencies": ["bootstrap"],

To isolate the issue, I created a minimal reproduction using Bootstrap.

Thank you very much for the awesome work 🚀

Please provide a link to a minimal reproduction of the bug

https://github.com/Tragio/angular-externalize-repro

Please provide the exception or error you saw

> ng build

Application bundle generation failed. [1.968 seconds]

✘ [ERROR] Can't find stylesheet to import.
  ╷
2 │ @use "bootstrap/scss/bootstrap";
  │ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  ╵
  src/styles.scss 2:1  root stylesheet [plugin angular-sass]

    angular:styles/global:styles:1:8:
      1 │ @import 'src/styles.scss';
        ╵         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please provide the environment you discovered this bug in (run ng version)

Angular CLI: 19.2.14
Node: 22.14.0
Package Manager: npm 10.9.2
OS: darwin arm64

Angular: 19.2.14
... cli, common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms
... platform-browser, platform-browser-dynamic, router

Package                         Version
---------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect       0.1902.14
@angular-devkit/build-angular   19.2.14
@angular-devkit/core            19.2.14
@angular-devkit/schematics      19.2.14
@schematics/angular             19.2.14
rxjs                            7.8.2
typescript                      5.7.3
zone.js                         0.15.1

Anything else?

No response