migrate-barrel-imports

A CLI tool to migrate barrel imports to direct module imports in JavaScript/TypeScript monorepos.

About

Barrel files (index.ts re-exports) hurt build performance, cause circular dependencies, and slow down editor tooling. This CLI rewrites barrel imports across your codebase to point directly at the source modules.

Inspired by Please Stop Using Barrel Files.

// Before
import { foo, bar } from '@repo/package'

// After
import { foo } from '@repo/package/src/foo'
import { bar } from '@repo/package/src/bar'

Features

• Glob patterns for targeting multiple packages at once
• Automatic resolution of re-exported symbols to their source files
• Configurable file ignore patterns for both source and target directories
• Optional file extension stripping for bundler-friendly imports

Installation

npm install -g migrate-barrel-imports

Requirements

• Node.js >= 20

Usage

migrate-barrel-imports <source-path> [target-path] [options]

Or run without installing:

npx migrate-barrel-imports <source-path> [target-path] [options]

Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default | | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | | source-path | Directory pattern for source packages (e.g. libs/*, packages/{ui,core}) | (required) | | target-path | Directory where imports should be migrated | . (current directory) |

Options

| Option | Description | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | --ignore-source-files <patterns> | Comma-separated file patterns to ignore in source directories | | --ignore-target-files <patterns> | Comma-separated file patterns to ignore in target directories | | --no-extension | Omit file extensions from rewritten import paths | | --dry-run | Preview changes without modifying files |

Examples

# Migrate a single package
migrate-barrel-imports ./packages/my-lib \
  --ignore-source-files "**/__tests__/**,**/__mocks__/**" \
  --ignore-target-files "**/*.test.ts"

# Migrate multiple packages using glob pattern
migrate-barrel-imports "libs/*" --no-extension

# Migrate specific packages
migrate-barrel-imports "packages/{ui,core,utils}" --ignore-target-files "**/*.test.ts"

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/brandhaug/migrate-barrel-imports.git
cd migrate-barrel-imports
npm install

Running Tests

npm test

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.