commonjs_to_esm

Documentation Index

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What it does

• const x = require('m') → import x from 'm' (with node: prefix for Node builtins).
• const { a, b } = require('m') → import { a, b } from 'm'.
• module.exports = X (identifier) → export default X.
• module.exports = { a, b } (object literal) → named export { a, b }.

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Detector pattern

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Preconditions

1. The file does not use __dirname or __filename — these are CommonJS-only globals; ESM requires import.meta.url translation which is out of scope.
2. No dynamic require (require(name) where name is not a string literal) — ESM imports must be static.
3. The file is not a .cjs extension (explicitly opted into CommonJS by the user).
4. No require.resolve(...), require.cache, or other Node CJS-specific APIs.

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Before / after

// Legacy CommonJS interop.
const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
  join: (a, b) => path.join(a, b),
};

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Edge cases handled

• Node builtins (path, fs, os, crypto, etc.) get the modern node: specifier prefix.
• Package specifiers (lodash, express) are kept unprefixed.
• Relative specifiers ('./utils') are kept unprefixed.
• Destructured require (const { join } = require('path')) becomes named import.
• module.exports = identifier becomes export default identifier.
• module.exports = { a, b } becomes export { a, b }.

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Edge cases NOT handled (skip via precondition)

• File uses __dirname / __filename (precondition node-globals).
• Dynamic require(name) where name is not a literal (precondition dynamic-require).
• .cjs files (precondition cjs-extension).
• module.exports.x = ... style (top-level mutation of the exports object — defer to a manual migration).