Dependency assets are not recognized if a `declare function require(...)` exists

Author: balthildCreated Aug 14, 2025Updated Aug 11, 2026

bug report

One of the typescript files from a vendor package contains code like this...

typescript

declare function require(x: string): any
const url = require('../../some-text-file.txt')

The typescript files use ESM import in general, but use require sometimes to import asset files.

The some-text-file.txt is not added into the bundle graph and does not appear in the dist folder.

Configuration (.babelrc, package.json, cli command)

.parcelrc

json

{
  "extends": "@parcel/config-default",
  "transformers": {
    "*.txt": ["...", "@parcel/transformer-raw"],
  },
}

package.json

json

{
  "targets": {
    "flame": {
      "source": "./resources/js/flame.tsx",
      "distDir": "./dist",
      "context": "browser",
      "outputFormat": "global",
      "sourceMap": true,
      "scopeHoist": false
    }
  }
}

Note that scope hoisting is turned off because I was also encountering #6071. However, if I turn it on, the txt file will be bundled correctly. Not sure if the two problems are correlated or not.

Expected Behavior

The some-text-file.txt should be a dependency of the typescript file.

Current Behavior

An Uncaught error: Cannot find module occurs at runtime.

Possible Solution

I wrote a transformer plugin as a workaround

javascript

import { Transformer } from '@parcel/plugin';

export default new Transformer({
  async transform({ asset }) {
    const code = await asset.getCode();

    let match = code.match(/require\('(.+\.txt)'\);/);
    if (match) {
      asset.addDependency({
        specifier: match[1],
        specifierType: 'url',
        bundleBehavior: 'isolated',
      });
    }

    return [asset];
  },
});

Context

Code Sample

Your Environment

Software	Version(s)
Parcel	2.15.4
Node	22.16.0
npm/Yarn	yarn 4.6.0
Operating System	macOS 15

Source: parcel-bundler/parcel

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