Environment

• Operating System: Darwin
• Node Version: v22.16.0
• Nuxt Version: 4.2.1
• CLI Version: 3.30.0
• Nitro Version: 2.12.9
• Package Manager: pnpm@10.22.0
• Builder: -
• User Config: extends
• Runtime Modules: -
• Build Modules: -

Reproduction

https://github.com/dword-design/demo-nuxt-layers-wrong-outdir

1. pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
2. pnpm build

Describe the bug

Expected: .output is generated in cwd.
Actual: .output is generated in foo subfolder.

This always happens when Jiti imports the layer using ESM instead of transpiling:

• When the layer config is a .js file and "type": "module" is set in package.json
• When the layer config is an .mjs file
• When the layer is in node_modules (which imho is a frequent case, including mine)

It works as expected when nuxt.config.ts is a TypeScript file.

I think the issue is that when importing using ESM, the ESM cache is there and there is probably some place where Nuxt is setting rootDir in an already-imported layer or sth. With transpiling, Jiti will always do a clean import.

Looks like the issue came in with nuxt@3.14.0. There Jiti@2 was introduced that adds native ESM imports. I guess that's where it came in, but I think the root cause is a mutated data issue in Nuxt.