[bug]: TypeScript Export Path Issue with Strapi Plugin Build

[deivydarwoft]

What version of @strapi/sdk-plugin are you using?

• Npm version: 10.8.2
• Node.js version: 20.18.3
• React version: 18.3.1
• Strapi version: 5.23.3
• @strapi/sdk-plugin version: 5.3.2
• Browser: Chrome

What's Wrong?

When building a Strapi plugin with TypeScript, the generated type definitions (.d.ts) are placed in a nested folder (e.g. dist/<plugin-name>/admin/src/index.d.ts).

However, the default package.json configuration expects the types in dist/admin/src/index.d.ts and dist/server/src/index.d.ts, causing verification errors when running the script:

"verify": "strapi-plugin verify"

The error output:

[ERROR]  Missing files for exports:
    ./dist/admin/src/index.d.ts
    ./dist/server/src/index.d.ts

To Reproduce

1. Create or update a Strapi plugin with TypeScript in a monorepo (Nx or similar).

2. Use the default build scripts and tsconfig.build.json.

3. Run the build and verify commands:

   npm run build
   npm run verify

4. Observe that the type files are generated in dist/<plugin-name>/admin/src and dist/<plugin-name>/server/src.

5. The verification fails due to missing files in the expected export paths.

Expected Behaviour

• The plugin build should generate type files in the exact paths expected by the package.json exports field, or the package.json should be updated to match the actual output structure.

• After updating the package.json to:

  "types": "./dist/<plugin-name>/admin/src/index.d.ts"

  and

  "types": "./dist/<plugin-name>/server/src/index.d.ts"

  the verification passes and the plugin works as expected

Additional Notes

• If you run watch: strapi-plugin watch before running verify, the verification will pass without errors. This is because the watch command generates the type files in the expected locations before verification.

[dosubot]

This is a known issue with the Strapi plugin SDK, especially in monorepo setups where the build output for type definitions can end up in nested folders (like dist/<plugin-name>/admin/src/index.d.ts) instead of the flat structure expected by the default package.json exports (like dist/admin/src/index.d.ts). The build and watch commands both use your tsconfig.build.json and the types field in your exports to determine where to generate type definitions, but the build command may not always arrange the files exactly as expected, while the watch command often does due to extra post-processing steps. This mismatch causes the verify step to fail if the files aren't where the exports expect them to be.

To resolve this, update your package.json to point the types field to the actual generated path (e.g., "types": "./dist/<plugin-name>/admin/src/index.d.ts"). This will allow verification to pass and your plugin to work as expected. This behavior and the need for this workaround are discussed in several issues and are related to how the SDK validates and expects export paths to match the generated output structure, especially in monorepos or when the plugin name introduces extra nesting [source] [source].

If you want to avoid this in the future, make sure your tsconfig.build.json, build scripts, and package.json exports are all aligned with your actual output structure, especially if your monorepo setup introduces extra directories.

Written by @dosu, approved by ben.irvin@strapi.io

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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