ESM import a .node addon - node.js

Question

I am trying to import a .node binary addon in an ESM & Node Typescript based context. However, when I try to do this I get the following error "error TS2307: Cannot find module './addon.node' or its corresponding type declarations."
I've looked online for several solutions, these are my versions:
NodeJS: v16.14.1
ts-node: v10.7.0
Typescript: 4.6.3
This is my current approach for importing:
import addon from "./addon.node";
Just to note, because of my configuration I am limited to only using import.
Thanks in advance for any support.

Answer 1

Node.js import doesn’t support .node files. To import such files in an ESM context, you need to use createRequire:
import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
const addon = require('./addon.node');
You could also import the .node file in a CommonJS file that an ESM file then imports.
// addon.cjs
module.exports = require('./addon.node');
// main.js
import addon from './addon.cjs';
Finally, you could create an ESM loader that adds support for .node files to import, by wrapping the createRequire method into a loader (untested):
import { cwd } from 'node:process';
import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
const baseURL = pathToFileURL(`${cwd()}/`).href;
export async function resolve(specifier, context, nextResolve) {
if (specifier.endsWith('.node')) {
const { parentURL = baseURL } = context;
// Node.js normally errors on unknown file extensions, so return a URL for
// specifiers ending in `.node`.
return {
shortCircuit: true,
url: new URL(specifier, parentURL).href,
};
}
// Let Node.js handle all other specifiers.
return nextResolve(specifier);
}
export async function load(url, context, nextLoad) {
if (url.endsWith('.node')) {
const source = `
import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
const path = fileURLToPath(${url});
export default require(path);`;
return {
format: 'module',
shortCircuit: true,
source,
};
}
// Let Node.js handle all other URLs.
return nextLoad(url);
}