@babel/eslint-parser

What is @babel/eslint-parser?

The @babel/eslint-parser package is an ESLint parser that allows you to lint all valid Babel code with ESLint. It is designed to be used with ESLint and Babel, enabling developers to use ESLint on code that contains Babel-specific syntax. The parser is compatible with the latest JavaScript features and experimental syntax, allowing developers to write modern JavaScript without worrying about linting issues.

What are @babel/eslint-parser's main functionalities?

Parsing Babel Code

This feature allows you to parse Babel code with ESLint. The code sample shows how to configure ESLint to use @babel/eslint-parser in an ESLint configuration file.

module.exports = {
  parser: '@babel/eslint-parser',
  parserOptions: {
    requireConfigFile: false,
    babelOptions: {
      presets: ['@babel/preset-env']
    }
  }
};

Using with ESLint and Babel

This feature integrates ESLint with Babel, allowing you to apply ESLint rules to Babel code. The code sample provides an example of an ESLint configuration that uses @babel/eslint-parser and specifies some ESLint rules.

module.exports = {
  extends: ['eslint:recommended'],
  parser: '@babel/eslint-parser',
  env: {
    browser: true,
    es6: true
  },
  rules: {
    'no-unused-vars': 'warn',
    'no-console': 'off'
  }
};

Other packages similar to @babel/eslint-parser

espree

Espree is the default parser for ESLint and is built on top of Acorn. It is used to parse ECMAScript 2015+ code. While it supports many modern JavaScript features, it does not have the same level of experimental syntax support as @babel/eslint-parser.

@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin

This is an ESLint plugin that pairs with typescript-eslint/parser. It contains a set of ESLint rules that are specific to TypeScript code. It is similar to @babel/eslint-parser in that it extends ESLint's capabilities to additional syntax, but it is focused on TypeScript rather than Babel.

README

@babel/eslint-parser

@babel/eslint-parser allows you to lint ALL valid Babel code with the fantastic ESLint.

When should I use @babel/eslint-parser?

ESLint's default parser and core rules only support the latest final ECMAScript standard and do not support experimental (such as new features) and non-standard (such as Flow or TypeScript types) syntax provided by Babel. @babel/eslint-parser is a parser that allows ESLint to run on source code that is transformed by Babel.

Note: You only need to use @babel/eslint-parser if you are using Babel to transform your code. If this is not the case, please use the relevant parser for your chosen flavor of ECMAScript (note that the default parser supports all non-experimental syntax as well as JSX).

How does it work?

ESLint allows for the use of custom parsers. When using this plugin, your code is parsed by Babel's parser (using the configuration specified in your Babel configuration file) and the resulting AST is transformed into an ESTree-compliant structure that ESLint can understand. All location info such as line numbers, columns is also retained so you can track down errors with ease.

Note: ESLint's core rules do not support experimental syntax and may therefore not work as expected when using @babel/eslint-parser. Please use the companion @babel/eslint-plugin plugin for core rules that you have issues with.

Usage

Installation

$ npm install eslint @babel/core @babel/eslint-parser --save-dev
# or
$ yarn add eslint @babel/core @babel/eslint-parser -D

Note: @babel/eslint-parser requires @babel/core@>=7.2.0 and a valid Babel configuration file to run. If you do not have this already set up, please see the Babel Usage Guide.

Setup

To use @babel/eslint-parser, "@babel/eslint-parser" must be specified as the parser in your ESLint configuration file (see here for more detailed information).

.eslintrc.js

module.exports = {
  parser: "@babel/eslint-parser",
};

With the parser set, your configuration can be configured as described in the Configuring ESLint documentation.

Note: The parserOptions described in the official documentation are for the default parser and are not necessarily supported by @babel/eslint-parser. Please see the section directly below for supported parserOptions.

Additional parser configuration

Additional configuration options can be set in your ESLint configuration under the parserOptions key. Please note that the ecmaFeatures config property may still be required for ESLint to work properly with features not in ECMAScript 5 by default.

• requireConfigFile (default true) can be set to false to allow @babel/eslint-parser to run on files that do not have a Babel configuration associated with them. This can be useful for linting files that are not transformed by Babel (such as tooling configuration files), though we recommend using the default parser via glob-based configuration. Note: When requireConfigFile is false, @babel/eslint-parser will still try to load the root babel config. If no configuration file is found, @babel/eslint-parser will not parse any experimental syntax. Though not recommended, if you have a babel config, but would like to prevent @babel/eslint-parser from loading Babel config, please specify .eslintrc.js

module.exports = {
  parser: "@babel/eslint-parser",
  parserOptions: {
    requireConfigFile: false,
    babelOptions: {
      babelrc: false,
      configFile: false,
      // your babel options
      presets: ["@babel/preset-env"],
    },
  },
};

• sourceType can be set to "module"(default) or "script" if your code isn't using ECMAScript modules.

• allowImportExportEverywhere (default false) can be set to true to allow import and export declarations to appear anywhere a statement is allowed if your build environment supports that. Otherwise import and export declarations can only appear at a program's top level.
• ecmaFeatures.globalReturn (default false) allow return statements in the global scope when used with sourceType: "script".
• babelOptions is an object containing Babel configuration options that are passed to Babel's parser at runtime. For cases where users might not want to use a Babel configuration file or are running Babel through another tool (such as Webpack with babel-loader).

.eslintrc.js

module.exports = {
  parser: "@babel/eslint-parser",
  parserOptions: {
    sourceType: "module",
    allowImportExportEverywhere: false,
    ecmaFeatures: {
      globalReturn: false,
    },
    babelOptions: {
      configFile: "path/to/config.js",
    },
  },
};

.eslintrc.js using glob-based configuration

This configuration would use the default parser for all files except for those found by the "files/transformed/by/babel/*.js" glob.

module.exports = {
  rules: {
    indent: "error",
  },
  overrides: [
    {
      files: ["files/transformed/by/babel/*.js"],
      parser: "@babel/eslint-parser",
    },
  ],
};

Monorepo configuration

This configuration is useful for monorepo, when you are running ESLint on every package and not from the monorepo root folder, as it avoids to repeat the Babel and ESLint configuration on every package.

module.exports = {
  parser: "@babel/eslint-parser",
  parserOptions: {
    babelOptions: {
      rootMode: "upward",
    },
  },
};

Run

$ ./node_modules/.bin/eslint yourfile.js

TypeScript

While @babel/eslint-parser can parse TypeScript, we don't currently support linting TypeScript using the rules in @babel/eslint-plugin. This is because the TypeScript community has centered around @typescript-eslint and we want to avoid duplicate work. Additionally, since @typescript-eslint uses TypeScript under the hood, its rules can be made type-aware, which is something Babel doesn't have the ability to do.

Questions and support

If you have an issue, please first check if it can be reproduced with the default parser and with the latest versions of eslint and @babel/eslint-parser. If it is not reproducible with the default parser, it is most likely an issue with @babel/eslint-parser.

For questions and support please visit the #discussion Babel Slack channel (sign up here) or the ESLint Discord server.

Changelog

v7.25.9 (2024-10-22)

:bug: Bug Fix

• babel-parser, babel-template, babel-types
  • #16905 fix: Keep type annotations in syntacticPlaceholders mode (@liuxingbaoyu)
• babel-helper-compilation-targets, babel-preset-env
  • #16907 fix: support BROWSERSLIST{,_CONFIG} env (@JLHwung)
• Other
  • #16884 Analyze ClassAccessorProperty to prevent the no-undef rule (@victorenator)

:house: Internal

• babel-helper-transform-fixture-test-runner
  • #16914 remove test options flaky (@JLHwung)

:running_woman: Performance

• babel-parser, babel-types
  • #16918 perf: Make VISITOR_KEYS etc. faster to access (@liuxingbaoyu)