react app build fails with 'ERR_REQUIRE_ESM'

Question

When I am trying to run the build command for my react application I am seeing this error failing the build:

var stripAnsi = require('strip-ansi');
                ^

Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: require() of ES Module C:\Users\rahul\Documents\project_name\node_modules\strip-ansi\index.js from C:\Users\rahul\Documents\cambian\cambian-widget-client\node_modules\react-dev-utils\FileSizeReporter.js not supported.
Instead change the require of index.js in C:\Users\rahul\Documents\project_name\node_modules\react-dev-utils\FileSizeReporter.js to a dynamic import() which is available in all CommonJS modules.
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\rahul\Documents\project_name\node_modules\react-dev-utils\FileSizeReporter.js:15:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\rahul\Documents\project_name\node_modules\react-scripts\scripts\build.js:35:26) {
  code: 'ERR_REQUIRE_ESM'
}
error Command failed with exit code 1.

But when I delete the lockfile and re-run the build command, it executes successfully. Then again the new builds fails until the lockfile is removed.

This is causing a major issue as we have to manually deploy the application every time a change has been done.

This has been working fine two weeks ago and I can confirm neither new packages have been added nor any package has been updated

What I have tried?

• upgrading node, npm, yarn but nothing worked
• yarn cache clean
• yarn audit fix --force

Build command used: react-scripts build

Enviroment:

node: 16.19.0
npm: 9.8.1
yarn: 1.22.19

React packages version

    "react": "^17.0.2",
    "react-dom": "^17.0.2",
    "react-scripts": "^5.0.0",

Coltin

Answer 1

The only way I have found around this is a resolution in package.json forcing strip-ansi down to 6.0.0 or 6.0.1. It became pure ESM in 7.0.0. Something like this:

{
  ...
  "resolutions": {
    "strip-ansi": "6.0.0"
  }
}

If you use npm rather than yarn (which I see the OP isn't, but for others), then use an override:

{
  ...
  "overrides": {
    "strip-ansi": "6.0.0"
  }
}

Flatfoot

Man, you're a savior! I spent a whole day at work, pushed by the release timeframe, trying to fix it. The problem was that the issue was only popping up in the GitHub pipelines which was adding the whole other layer of complexity! – Thule