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new URL('./source.js', import.meta.url) produces a URL ending in [object%20Module] with a javascript/auto rule #23271
Description
Have you used AI?
Yes
Which part of webpack is affected?
not sure, config (options, defaults, validation)
Bug Description
new URL('./source.js', import.meta.url) to get a link to the original JavaScript file. When a rule sets type: 'javascript/auto' for all .js files, webpack compiles successfully, skips emitting the source file, and generates a URL ending in [object%20Module].
Link to Minimal Reproduction and steps to reproduce
The reproduction repository includes the emitted files. Clone it and run pnpm install --frozen-lockfile, then pnpm run webpack and pnpm run webpack:baseline.
Expected Behavior
The URL should point to the emitted copy of source.js, as it does in the baseline.
Actual Behavior
With the rule, webpack emits only dist/webpack/with-rule/bundle.cjs. Running it prints file:///…/dist/webpack/with-rule/[object%20Module].
Without the rule, webpack also emits dist/webpack/baseline/source.js. The bundle prints file:///…/dist/webpack/baseline/source.js, and cmp confirms that the emitted file matches the original byte for byte.
Environment
System:
OS: macOS 27.2
CPU: (18) arm64 Apple M5 Pro
Memory: 48.00 GB
Binaries:
Node: 24.15.0
Yarn: 1.22.22
npm: 11.12.1
pnpm: 10.34.4
Packages:
webpack: 5.112.2
webpack-cli: 7.3.1Is this a regression?
None
Last Working Version
No response
Additional Context
No response
Activity
intellild commentedon Nov 12, 2026
Possible Solution
Allow
new URL(..., import.meta.url)to return the URL of an emitted JavaScript or CSS bundle. The CSS proposal would resolve stylesheet dependencies and emit a standalone CSS file. webpack/webpack#21209Making bundle URLs the default for JavaScript and CSS could be a breaking change. Existing callers can use these URLs to fetch the original source bytes, while a bundle may contain transformed code and inlined dependencies. An explicit opt-in could preserve the current asset behavior for existing callers.
intellild commentedon Nov 12, 2026
Another option is to add module.finalRules. webpack would apply these rules after module.rules, so the default URL handling could take precedence over a broad rule such as { test: /.js$/, type: 'javascript/auto' }.
The built-in finalRules would be:
If a user specifies module.finalRules, their array replaces the built-in rules. The special "..." entry explicitly inserts the built-in rules at that position. For example, finalRules: ["..."] keeps the defaults, and finalRules: [] disables them.
alexander-akait commentedon Nov 12, 2026
Yeah, known limitation, the new for html and css (as you can see), need to think about it
thisisvaishnav commentedon Nov 13, 2026
Problem & Solution: The user's
module.rulesoverride the defaultdependency: "url"asset type soURLDependencyTemplatereceives a JS module instead of an asset string and stringifies its exports object to[object%20Module]; for now this can be solved in config withdependency: { not: ['url'] }.I'd like to contribute and help fix this in Webpack—should I open a PR? If so, what direction would the maintainers prefer (e.g. emitting a warning/error when a URL dependency resolves to a non-asset module, or a config-level solution)?