Using native ECMAScript modules in Babeljs config

Question

I'm very, very confused about using babel config with native ECMAScript modules, and "type": "module" set in package.json. As far as I understand Babel docs (here, under "Supported file extensions"), its should be possible. But if I try with config like this:

const config = () => {
  const presets = [
    "@babel/preset-react",
    [
      "@babel/preset-env",
      {
        bugfixes: true,
        useBuiltIns: "usage",
        corejs: { version: "3.6", proposals: true },
      },
    ],
  ];
  const plugins = ["@babel/plugin-transform-runtime"];
  return { presets, plugins };
};
export default config;

I get Error while loading config - You appear to be using a native ECMAScript module configuration file, which is only supported when running Babel asynchronously.

This is expected as the said docs states that "native ECMAScript modules are asynchronous". Alas, sprinkling the above config with async / await doesn't solve the problem. I'm running babel through parcel - is this a issue with parcel? Did I misunderstood the docs? I really appreciate if someone could clarify it for me.

Answer 1

I think the problem is that your package.json says you are using ES6 modules, but your Babel config is using module.exports which is CommonJS (not ES6 modules).

Rename babel.config.js to babel.config.cjs