Build: Skip non-minified build for WASM-inlined workers

[adamsilverstein]

Summary

Skips generating the non-minified .js version for script module exports that correspond to wpWorkers entries (currently only @wordpress/vips/worker).

Why

The vips worker bundles ~16 MB of base64-encoded WASM data. Minification has negligible effect on this content, so worker.js and worker.min.js are nearly identical in size. The non-minified version provides zero debugging value since the content is all inlined binary WASM data.

Size impact

	Before	After	Saved
Build output (build/modules/vips/)	64 MB (worker.js + worker.min.js + maps)	32 MB (worker.min.js + map only)	~32 MB (50%)
worker.min.js (shipped file)	16.1 MB	16.1 MB (unchanged)	0

This PR reduces the build output by eliminating redundant files. The shipped worker.min.js size is unchanged.

Related PRs for further size reduction

• Build: Remove unused JXL WASM module from vips worker #76639 — Remove unused JXL WASM module (saves 3.1 MB from worker.min.js, 16.1 → 13.1 MB)
• Build: Exclude non-minified VIPS files from grunt module copy wordpress-develop#11281 — Core Gruntfile exclusion (safety net)

Test plan

• Run npm run build — verify build/modules/vips/ contains only worker.min.js, worker.min.js.map, and worker.min.asset.php (no worker.js or worker.js.map)
• Verify build/modules/vips/loader.js (non-worker module) still gets both minified and non-minified versions
• Test image upload/processing in the editor to confirm vips still works correctly

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs. You can also manually ask me to refresh this list by adding the props-bot label.

If you're merging code through a pull request on GitHub, copy and paste the following into the bottom of the merge commit message.

Co-authored-by: adamsilverstein <adamsilverstein@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: ramonjd <ramonopoly@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: adamziel <zieladam@git.wordpress.org>

To understand the WordPress project's expectations around crediting contributors, please review the Contributor Attribution page in the Core Handbook.

[ramonjd]

I checked the build artifact at https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/actions/runs/23229363447/job/67519295753?pr=76615

and also a fresh build locally and here's what I'm seeing:

total 66008
drwxr-xr-x  10 rj staff       320 Mar 18 17:01 .
drwxr-xr-x  18 rj staff       576 Mar 18 17:01 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       173 Mar 18 17:01 loader.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj staff       999 Mar 18 17:01 loader.js.map
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       179 Mar 18 17:01 loader.min.asset.php
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       114 Mar 18 17:01 loader.min.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff      1006 Mar 18 17:01 loader.min.js.map
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff        83 Mar 18 17:01 worker.min.asset.php
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff  16859314 Mar 18 17:01 worker.min.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff  16907864 Mar 18 17:01 worker.min.js.map

du -ch build/modules/vips/* | tail -1

 32M    total

And in trunk

total 131976
drwxr-xr-x  12 rj  staff       384 Mar 18 17:15 .
drwxr-xr-x  18 rj  staff       576 Mar 18 17:15 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       173 Mar 18 17:15 loader.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       999 Mar 18 17:15 loader.js.map
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       179 Mar 18 17:15 loader.min.asset.php
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff       114 Mar 18 17:15 loader.min.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff      1006 Mar 18 17:15 loader.min.js.map
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff  16867961 Mar 18 17:15 worker.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff  16902362 Mar 18 17:15 worker.js.map
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff        83 Mar 18 17:15 worker.min.asset.php
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff  16859314 Mar 18 17:15 worker.min.js
-rw-r--r--   1 rj  staff  16907864 Mar 18 17:15 worker.min.js.map

du -ch build/modules/vips/* | tail -1

 64M    total

👍🏻

[ramonjd]

Nothing to do here, but makes we wonder if packages could support something like skipNonMinified in package.json, e.g.,

	"wpWorkers": {
		"./worker": {
			"entry": "./src/worker.ts",
			"resolve": {
				"vips-es6.js": "vips.js"
			},
            "skipNonMinified": true
		}
	},

[adamsilverstein]

Good idea - we can make this more generic so other packages could opt in to the behavior, lets do that the next time we have a package that wants it.

[ramonjd]

This looks fine to me, but it'd be good to get 👀 from folks over on the main issue: #74333 (comment)

[adamziel]

LGTM, thank you for addressing this so quickly @adamsilverstein!

[adamsilverstein]

LGTM, thank you for addressing this so quickly @adamsilverstein!

You are welcome, I realize time is tight!

Also - this was a regression - we had fixed this previously (I thought anyway!) so I wanted to fix that!

[github-actions]

I just cherry-picked this PR to the wp/7.0 branch to get it included in the next release: 1994d35

[ramonjd]

I think this fix is related to this PR:

• Build: Fix vips worker 404 when SCRIPT_DEBUG is true #76657

From what I gather, WASM workers (e.g. vips) now only build worker.min.js, but module registration requests worker.js when SCRIPT_DEBUG was true. Try saying that 10x fast in a row!