#159·tsx

Resolving tsconfig paths breaks inside node_modules

Author: IlyaSemenovCreated Dec 5, 2022Updated Jun 1, 2026

Labelsbugpending triagetsconfig

Bug description

I put my project inside node_modules directory (not even real node_modules alongside some package.json, just a new directory named that).

After doing so, resolving tsconfig paths stopped working.

I expect tsx to be agnostic to where the project is located (as long as it has its own package.json and tsconfig.json), same as esbuild is.

Reproduction

I repeated this on Stackblitz: https://stackblitz.com/edit/node-qjlxvn

This does not completely resemble the description above (it uses a 'real' node_modules directory) but the very same code can be used to repeat the problem on a completely empty node_modules.

Run:

typescript

~/projects/node-qjlxvn
❯ cd test

~/projects/node-qjlxvn/test
❯ tsx index.ts
value

~/projects/node-qjlxvn/test
❯ cd ..

~/projects/node-qjlxvn
❯ mv test node_modules/

~/projects/node-qjlxvn
❯ cd node_modules/test

~/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/test
❯ tsx index.ts
Error: Cannot find module '@/value'
Require stack:
- /home/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/test/index.ts
    at Module._resolveFilename (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:6:217308)
    at d.default._resolveFilename (file:///home/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]/node_modules/@esbuild-kit/cjs-loader/dist/index.js:1:1554)
    at Module._load (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:6:214847)
    at Module.require (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:6:218087)
    at i (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:6:415284)
    at _0xc8b09a (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:15:142803)
    at eval (file:///home/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/test/index.ts:2:774)
    at Object.eval (file:///home/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/test/index.ts:3:3)
    at Object.function (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:15:143540)
    at Module._compile (https://nodeqjlxvn-s25i.w-credentialless.staticblitz.com/blitz.b6c96f782a49b3e017dca41830943768f8acbe40.js:6:219079) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [ '/home/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/test/index.ts' ]
}

~/projects/node-qjlxvn/node_modules/test
❯ esbuild --bundle index.ts
(() => {
  // src/value.ts
  var value_default = "value";

  // index.ts
  console.log(value_default);
})();

Environment

bash

System:
    OS: Linux 5.0 undefined
    CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz
    Memory: 0 Bytes / 0 Bytes
    Shell: 1.0 - /bin/jsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 16.14.2 - /usr/local/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.19 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
    npm: 7.17.0 - /usr/local/bin/npm
  npmPackages:
    tsx: ^3.12.1 => 3.12.1

Can you contribute a fix?

I’m interested in opening a pull request for this issue.

Source: privatenumber/tsx

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