Relative import paths need explicit file extensions in EcmaScript imports when '--moduleResolution' is 'node16' or 'nodenext'. Did you mean './*.js'

Question

In package.json I have "type": "module" and I use SWC to compile the typescript code. When doing imports I use import Example from './example' and then use "start": "node --es-module-specifier-resolution=node lib/index.js" as a script so that I don't have to specify the extensions. This allows me to compile using SWC without needing to specify the extensions which is amazing, otherwise I have to specify .js extensions, inside typescript, for when it's compiled to a different /lib directory.

However when running tsc --emitDeclrationOnly on the codebase it breaks with the above error when I have "moduleResolution": "nodenext" in tsconfig.json. It's telling me that nodenext or node16 enforces file extensions. That is quite annoying and sort of makes it difficult to use nodenext or node16. Is there a reason why this is done, or am I missing something that allows me to easily tell typescript how to resolve extensions by itself?

Answer 1

In your tsconfig.json, update the moduleResolution configuration:

  "moduleResolution": "bundler",