@pnpm/node-path-for-esm

Why is it needed

Node.js ESM (ES modules) doesn't support the NODE_PATH environment variable, unlike CommonJS modules. This creates issues when using pnpm with a global virtual store. Many packages are importing other packages that are not actually in their dependnecies. To make these package work with pnpm, pnpm creates a directory with semi-hoisted packages at node_modules/.pnpm/node_modules. However, when a global virtual store is used, the dependnecies are symlinked from a different directory outside of the project's directory, so dependnecies from this hoisted node_modules are not used by Node.js during resolution. To solve this, pnpm adds this hoisted node_modules to NODE_PATH. This tells Node.js to search the hoisted node_modules for dependnecies. This works fine for dependnecies using the CommonJS module system. However, ESM stopped reading the NODE_PATH environment variable. That is why this config dependnecy was created. This config dependency registers an ES module loader that will look up dependencies in NODE_PATH.

Installation

pnpm add --config @pnpm/node-path-for-esm

Usage

Add this to pnpm-workspace.yaml:

pnpmfile: node_modules/.pnpm-config/@pnpm/node-path-for-esm/pnpmfile.cjs

License

MIT