Build errors on Cloudflare

[stephtr]

Describe the Bug

A follow-up on #15002:
When importing Payload for using the Local API on Cloudflare's worker platform, builds fail with:

✘ [ERROR] No matching export in
  "node_modules/.pnpm/file-type@21.3.4/node_modules/file-type/core.js" for import
  "fileTypeFromFile"
  
  node_modules/.pnpm/payload@4.0.0-internal.38b7f1d_graphql@16.14.0_typescript@5.9.3/node_modules/payload/dist/uploads/checkFileRestrictions.js:1:29:
        1 │ import { fileTypeFromBuffer, fileTypeFromFile } from 'file-type';

Since file-type probably won't be used by the Local API, I patched file-type using pnpm patch:

diff --git a/core.js b/core.js
index 1a28e8b413f594a9f28353851d47fef908d70df3..828f7d7e7ed6cdb419e17d07ef284b29edb131c2 100644
--- a/core.js
+++ b/core.js
@@ -390,6 +390,10 @@ function createByteLimitedReadableStream(stream, maximumBytes) {
 	});
 }
 
+export async function fileTypeFromFile(path, options) {
+	throw new Error('The `fileTypeFromFile` function is not supported in this environment');
+}
+
 export async function fileTypeFromStream(stream, options) {
 	return new FileTypeParser(options).fromStream(stream);
 }

However, the next error is then already waiting:

Uncaught Error: No such module "node:tty".

    imported from "index.js"

I tried it with a SvelteKit app bundled by vite, but could also reproduce it using a bare Cloudflare worker file. Both, with payload v3 and v4.

Interestingly, the fully-fledged Payload Cloudflare D1 example seems to work. I couldn't make out the difference. The wrangler.jsonc config isn't it.

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

https://github.com/stephtr/payload-cloudflare-worker

Reproduction Steps

1. Clone the repo
2. pnpm install
3. pnpm dev

Which area(s) are affected?

area: core

Environment Info

Binaries:
  Node: 26.1.0
  npm: 11.13.0
  Yarn: N/A
  pnpm: 11.1.1
Relevant Packages:
  payload: 4.0.0-internal.38b7f1d
  @payloadcms/db-d1-sqlite: 3.84.1
  @payloadcms/drizzle: 3.84.1
  @payloadcms/translations: 4.0.0-internal.38b7f1d
Operating System:
  Platform: darwin
  Arch: arm64
  Version: Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:54:55 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.91.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6031
  Available memory (MB): 36864
  Available CPU cores: 14

[stephtr]

Using compatibility flags [nodejs_compat, enable_nodejs_http_modules, enable_nodejs_perf_hooks_module], I got past the second error, only to get stuck at payload's dependency checker.

The Payload Cloudflare D1 template probably works because it additionally runs an opennextjs build process, which runs the dependency checker in a full node environment.

It seems like using Payload's Local API just won't work on Cloudflare/edge environments. A pitty, since the local API in principle minimally would just need access to the DB via drizzle.