prefer-process-get-builtin-module.md

n/prefer-process-get-builtin-module

📝 Enforce using process.getBuiltinModule() to load Node.js built-in modules.

Node.js exposes built-in modules synchronously through process.getBuiltinModule(). In ES modules, this avoids creating a require function solely to access a built-in module. It also communicates that the requested module is built into Node.js.

This API is available starting in Node.js 20.16.0 on the 20.x release line and in Node.js 22.3.0 or later.

📖 Rule Details

This rule reports calls to require() for built-in modules and awaited dynamic imports of built-in modules. It ignores non-built-in modules, dynamic imports that are not awaited directly, arbitrary functions named require, and references where process is shadowed. A local require created with createRequire() from node:module is recognized.

This rule is not automatically fixable. An awaited dynamic import returns an ES module namespace object, while process.getBuiltinModule() returns the underlying built-in exports object. Review how the loaded module is used when applying the suggested replacement.

👍 Examples of correct code for this rule:

/*eslint n/prefer-process-get-builtin-module: error */

const fs = process.getBuiltinModule("node:fs")
const eslint = require("eslint")
const lazyFs = import("node:fs")

👎 Examples of incorrect code for this rule:

/*eslint n/prefer-process-get-builtin-module: error */

const fs = require("node:fs")
const promises = await import("node:fs/promises")

Configured Node.js version range

Configured Node.js version range

Options

{
    "n/prefer-process-get-builtin-module": [
        "error",
        {
            "version": ">=22.3.0"
        }
    ]
}

version

This rule reads the [engines] field of package.json. You can override that range with the version option, which accepts any valid node-semver range.

The rule does not report when the configured range includes Node.js versions without process.getBuiltinModule().

🔎 Implementation

• Rule source
• Test source