Understanding esModuleInterop: CommonJS vs ES Module in TypeScript

Background: an unexpected issue caused by changing esModuleInterop from false to true, leading to a runtime error when uploading images.

Error: TypeError: TPS is not a constructor from code importing @ali/tps-node .

Fixes:

Set esModuleInterop back to false and adjust import syntax.

Change import to default: import TPS from '@ali/tps-node';

The article then explains the differences between CommonJS and ES Module specifications and how esModuleInterop influences TypeScript compilation.

CommonJS vs ES Module

In ES Module, a file foo.ts can export:

export const foo = 'foo';
class Foo {};
export default Foo;

Importing:

import Foo from './foo'; // default export
import * as foo from './foo'; // all exports as object { foo: 'foo', default: Foo }

When esModuleInterop=false , TypeScript compiles imports to CommonJS require calls without helpers.

import * as foo from 'abc' → const foo = require('abc');

When esModuleInterop=true , TypeScript adds helper functions __importDefault and __importStar to emulate default exports.

import Foo from 'abc' → const Foo_1 = __importDefault(require('abc'));
import * as foo from 'abc' → const foo = __importStar(require('abc'));

These helpers wrap CommonJS modules so that default import works even if the module does not export a default.

Best practice for importing CommonJS modules in TypeScript:

Use esModuleInterop=false and import * as XX from 'XX' .

Or enable esModuleInterop=true and use import XX from 'XX' .