Angular ignores compiler options paths

Question

I am trying to build an Angular application that uses xml2js however I am getting the following error:

$ ng build
⠦ Building...
✘ [ERROR] Could not resolve "timers"

    node_modules/xml2js/lib/parser.js:36:25:
      36 │   setImmediate = require('timers').setImmediate;
         ╵                          ~~~~~~~~

  The package "timers" wasn't found on the file system but is built into node. Are you trying to bundle for node? You can use "platform: 'node'" to do that, which will remove this error.

I have built the app without any problems previously, however I recently started to get this problem. I didn't change angular.json or tsconfig.app.json since then. Also, the app correctly works if I run the dev-server via ng serve and via ng serve -c production.

angular.json

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "version": 1,
  "newProjectRoot": "projects",
  "projects": {
    "<NDA_OMIT>": {
      "projectType": "application",
      "schematics": {
        "@schematics/angular:component": {
          "style": "sass"
        }
      },
      "root": "",
      "sourceRoot": "src",
      "prefix": "app",
      "architect": {
        "build": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:application",
          "options": {
            "outputPath": "dist/<NDA_OMIT>",
            "index": "src/index.html",
            "browser": "src/main.ts",
            "polyfills": [
              "zone.js",
              "node_modules/setimmediate/setImmediate.js"
            ],
            "allowedCommonJsDependencies": [
              "fast-levenshtein"
            ],
            "tsConfig": "tsconfig.app.json",
            "inlineStyleLanguage": "sass",
            "assets": [
              "src/favicon.ico",
              "src/assets"
            ],
            "styles": [
              "src/custom-theme.scss",
              "src/styles.sass"
            ],
            "stylePreprocessorOptions": {
              "includePaths": [
                "src/assets/styles"
              ]
            },
            "scripts": []
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "budgets": [
                {
                  "type": "initial",
                  "maximumWarning": "2mb",
                  "maximumError": "5mb"
                },
                {
                  "type": "anyComponentStyle",
                  "maximumWarning": "8kb",
                  "maximumError": "16kb"
                }
              ],
              "outputHashing": "all",
              "fileReplacements": [
                {
                  "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
                  "with": "src/environments/environment.production.ts"
                }
              ]
            },
            "development": {
              "optimization": false,
              "extractLicenses": false,
              "sourceMap": true
            }
          },
          "defaultConfiguration": "production"
        },
        "serve": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:dev-server",
          "options": {
            "proxyConfig": "src/proxy.conf.json"
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "buildTarget": "<NDA_OMIT>:build:production"
            },
            "development": {
              "buildTarget": "<NDA_OMIT>:build:development"
            }
          },
          "defaultConfiguration": "development"
        },
        "extract-i18n": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:extract-i18n",
          "options": {
            "buildTarget": "<NDA_OMIT>:build"
          }
        },
        "test": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:karma",
          "options": {
            "polyfills": [
              "zone.js",
              "zone.js/testing"
            ],
            "tsConfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
            "inlineStyleLanguage": "sass",
            "assets": [
              "src/favicon.ico",
              "src/assets"
            ],
            "styles": [
              "src/styles.sass"
            ],
            "scripts": []
          }
        },
        "lint": {
          "builder": "@angular-eslint/builder:lint",
          "options": {
            "lintFilePatterns": [
              "src/**/*.ts",
              "src/**/*.html"
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "cli": {
    "schematicCollections": [
      "@angular-eslint/schematics"
    ]
  }
}

tsconfig.app.json

/* To learn more about this file see: https://angular.io/config/tsconfig. */
{
  "extends": "./tsconfig.json",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "outDir": "./out-tsc/app",
    "types": [
      "node",
      "@angular/localize"
    ],
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "paths": {
      "timers": [
        "./node_modules/timers-browserify"
      ],
      "stream": [
        "./node_modules/stream-browserify"
      ],
      "environment": [
        "./src/environments/environment"
      ]
    }
  },
  "files": [
    "src/main.ts"
  ],
  "include": [
    "src/**/*.d.ts"
  ]
}

ng version output

Angular CLI: 17.2.0
Node: 20.11.0
Package Manager: npm 10.4.0
OS: linux x64

Angular: 17.2.1
... animations, common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms
... localize, platform-browser, platform-browser-dynamic, router

Package                            Version
------------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect          0.1702.0
@angular-devkit/build-angular      17.2.0
@angular-devkit/core               17.2.0
@angular-devkit/schematics         17.2.0
@angular/cdk                       17.3.7
@angular/cli                       17.2.0
@angular/material                  17.3.7
@angular/material-moment-adapter   17.3.7
@schematics/angular                17.2.0
rxjs                               7.8.1
typescript                         5.3.3
zone.js                            0.14.4

Answer 1

For some reason, installing timers fixes the issue. xml2js works perfectly fine even if that library doesn't provide setImmediate.