[ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND] [ESM] Vite doesn't bundle internal dependencies

[rtritto]

Describe the bug

With ESM, the electron-squirrel-startup dependency can't be found if it's in dependencies (it works if I move it into devDependencies):

• require.resolve (Node < 20.6.0) example; src/main.ts file:

  import { createRequire } from 'node:module'
  import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url'
  
  const require = createRequire(import.meta.url)
  const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url))
  
  try {
    // Handle creating/removing shortcuts on Windows when installing/uninstalling.
    require.resolve('electron-squirrel-startup/package.json')
    // OR require.resolve('electron-squirrel-startup/package.json', { paths: [__dirname] })
    app.quit()
  } catch (error) {
    // Ignore
    console.log('Ignore error: ', error)
  }

  Console output:

    Ignore error:  Error: Cannot find module 'electron-squirrel-startup/package.json'
    Require stack:
    - C:\template-electron-vite\.vite\build\main.js
        at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1152:15)
        at s._resolveFilename (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:120699)
        at Function.resolve (node:internal/modules/helpers:190:19)
        at file:///C:/template-electron-vite/.vite/build/main.js:8:12
        at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:222:25)
        at async ModuleLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:316:24)
        at async loadApplicationPackage (file:///C:/template-electron-vite/.yarn/unplugged/electron-npm-31.0.0-df97707901/node_modules/electron/dist/resources/default_app.asar/main.js:129:9)
        at async file:///C:/template-electron-vite/.yarn/unplugged/electron-npm-31.0.0-df97707901/node_modules/electron/dist/resources/default_app.asar/main.js:241:9 {    
      code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
      requireStack: [ 'C:\\template-electron-vite\\.vite\\build\\main.js' ]
    }

• import.meta.resolve (Node.js >= 20.6.0) example; src/main.ts file:

  try {
    // Handle creating/removing shortcuts on Windows when installing/uninstalling.
    import.meta.resolve('electron-squirrel-startup/package.json')
    app.quit()
  } catch (error) {
    // Ignore
    console.log('Ignore error: ', error)
  }

  Console output:

  Ignore error:  Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find package 'electron-squirrel-startup' imported from C:\template-electron-vite\.vite\build\main.js
      at packageResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:861:9)
      at moduleResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:934:18)
      at defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:1164:11)
      at ModuleLoader.defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:383:12)
      at ModuleLoader.resolveSync (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:365:17)
      at Object.resolve (node:internal/modules/esm/initialize_import_meta:30:25)
      at file:///C:/template-electron-vite/.vite/build/main.js:6:15
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:222:25)
      at async ModuleLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:316:24)
      at async loadApplicationPackage (file:///C:/template-electron-vite/.yarn/unplugged/electron-npm-31.0.0-df97707901/node_modules/electron/dist/resources/default_app.asar/main.js:129:9) {
    code: 'ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND'
  }

I did a try with other dependencies such as react and solid-js.

Stack

Electron Forge + Electron + Vite + ESM + Plug'n'Play (PnP) + Typescript

Reproduction

https://github.com/rtritto/template-electron-vite

Steps to reproduce

• git clone https://github.com/rtritto/template-electron-vite.git
• cd template-electron-vite
• yarn
• yarn start

System Info

System:
    OS: Windows 11
  Binaries:
    Node: 20.11.1 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    Yarn: 4.3.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\yarn.CMD
    npm: 10.2.4 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
  Browsers:
    Edge: Chromium 126
    Internet Explorer: 11

Used Package Manager

yarn

Logs

No response

Validations

• Follow our Code of Conduct
• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Make sure this is a Vite issue and not a framework-specific issue. For example, if it's a Vue SFC related bug, it should likely be reported to vuejs/core instead.
• Check that this is a concrete bug. For Q&A open a GitHub Discussion or join our Discord Chat Server.
• The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.

[rtritto]

FYI @merceyz

[bluwy]

Is this specific to the electron setup? It feels like it has different requirements for dependency handling, which Vite doesn't have an opinion about. I think you should report this upstream.