Migrating from CommonJS to ESM

Modules based on require() and module.exports (CommonJS) are a deprecated format. The modern stack (including Node.js) is gradually migrating to ESM (ECMAScript Modules), which has become the official standard.

Why consider the migration:

• ESM is supported in all modern compilers
• provides access to import/export, top-level await, tree-shaking
• new Node.js APIs, such as import.meta, are ESM-oriented
• more and more libraries are being published only in ESM format

More details: antfu.me/posts/move-on-to-esm-only

Detailed instructions for migration by sindresorhus

For a gradual migration, you may enable the prefer-module rule from eslint-plugin-unicorn.

⚠️ Migrating to ESM can be difficult, especially in CLI applications and projects that use dependencies that have not been updated for a long time. In such cases, it is better to stick with CommonJS until stable support is available.

ESM is the direction in which the platform is developing. If the project allows it, it is worth starting the migration. But for some types of applications, the migration may be too early at this point.