ESM support

Libraries created with create-react-native-library are pre-configured to work with ESM (ECMAScript Modules) out of the box.

You can verify whether ESM support is enabled by checking the configuration for react-native-builder-bob in the package.json file of the library:

"react-native-builder-bob": {
  "source": "src",
  "output": "lib",
  "targets": [
    ["commonjs", { "esm": true }],
    ["module", { "esm": true }],
    ["typescript", { "esm": true }]
  ]
}

The "esm": true option enables ESM-compatible output by adding the .js extension to the import statements in the generated files. For TypeScript, it also generates 2 sets of type definitions: one for the CommonJS build and one for the ES module build.

It's recommended to specify "moduleResolution": "Bundler" in your tsconfig.json file as well:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "moduleResolution": "Bundler"
  }
}

This means that you don't need to specify the file extension in the import statements. They'll be automatically added when possible during the build process.

To make use of the output files, ensure that your package.json file contains the following fields:

"main": "./lib/commonjs/index.js",
"module": "./lib/module/index.js",
"types": "./lib/typescript/commonjs/src/index.d.ts",
"exports": {
  ".": {
    "import": {
      "types": "./lib/typescript/module/src/index.d.ts",
      "default": "./lib/module/index.js"
    },
    "require": {
      "types": "./lib/typescript/commonjs/src/index.d.ts",
      "default": "./lib/commonjs/index.js"
    }
  }
},

The main, module and types fields are for legacy setups that don't support the exports field. See the Manual configuration guide for more information about those fields.

The exports field is used by modern tools and bundlers to determine the correct entry point. Here, we specify 2 conditions:

import: Used when the library is imported with an import statement or a dynamic import(). It should point to the ESM build.
require: Used when the library is required with a require call. It should point to the CommonJS build.

Each condition has a types field - necessary for TypeScript to provide the appropriate definitions for the module system. The type definitions have slightly different semantics for CommonJS and ESM, so it's important to specify them separately.

The default field is the fallback entry point for both conditions. It's used for the actual JS code when the library is imported or required.

You can also specify additional conditions for different scenarios, such as react-native, browser, production, development etc. Note that support for these conditions depends on the tooling you're using.

Guidelines

There are still a few things to keep in mind if you want your library to be ESM-compatible:

Avoid using default exports in your library. Named exports are recommended. Default exports produce a CommonJS module with a default property, which will work differently than the ESM build and can cause issues.
If the library uses platform-specific extensions (e.g., .ios.js or .android.js), the ESM output will not be compatible with Node.js. It's necessary to omit file extensions from the imports to make platform-specific extensions work, however, Node.js requires file extensions to be present. Bundlers such as Webpack (with resolve.fullySpecified: false (opens in a new tab)) or Metro can handle this. It's still possible to require the CommonJS build directly in Node.js.
Avoid using .cjs, .mjs, .cts or .mts extensions. Metro always requires file extensions in import statements when using .cjs or .mjs which breaks platform-specific extension resolution.
Avoid using "moduleResolution": "Node16" or "moduleResolution": "NodeNext" in your tsconfig.json file. They require file extensions in import statements which breaks platform-specific extension resolution.

If you specify a react-native condition in exports, make sure that it comes before import or require. The conditions should be ordered from the most specific to the least specific:

"exports": {
  ".": {
    "import": {
      "types": "./lib/typescript/module/src/index.d.ts",
      "react-native": "./lib/modules/index.native.js",
      "default": "./lib/module/index.js"
    },
    "require": {
      "types": "./lib/typescript/commonjs/src/index.d.ts",
      "react-native": "./lib/commonjs/index.native.js",
      "default": "./lib/commonjs/index.js"
    }
  }
}

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