eslint-rspack-plugin 5.0.0 Ships as a Pure ESM Package, Aligning with the Rstack Ecosystem

Version 5.0.0 of eslint-rspack-plugin has shipped as a pure ESM package. The release drops the CommonJS build and aligns the plugin with the Rstack ecosystem, specifically the Rspack side of that tooling stack. The project remains open source and is published on npm. InfoQ covered the release in a report by Dan.

Architecturally, the change is packaging, not a rewrite of how linting hooks into the build. The plugin still runs ESLint during the Rspack build process so diagnostics stay in the same pipeline as compile and bundle steps. What changes is the module format: consumers now load a pure ESM package instead of choosing between or relying on a dual CommonJS and ESM surface. That removes a CommonJS build path that previously kept older Node and bundler interop patterns working out of the box.

For engineers already on Rspack, the practical impact is dependency and tooling alignment. ESM-only packages force modern import paths, loaders, and Node settings, and they can break workflows that still expect require() or CommonJS-friendly resolution. Teams that treat ESLint as part of every incremental build will also notice that coupling lint to the compiler path can stretch build times when the graph or rule set is large.

In market terms, this follows the same direction many Rspack and broader Rstack packages have taken toward ESM-first distribution. Bundlers and lint plugins that stay dual-format longer ease migration; packages that cut CommonJS earlier push the ecosystem toward a single module story. eslint-rspack-plugin 5.0.0 places itself firmly in the latter camp, trading broader legacy interop for consistency with its host toolchain.

The concrete takeaway is operational. If ESLint in the build is costing wall-clock time, run lint as a separate command outside the Rspack pipeline and keep the plugin only where in-build feedback is worth the cost. Before upgrading to 5.0.0, confirm that your Node version, package type, and any custom loaders accept a pure ESM dependency. Watch for follow-on Rstack packages that drop CommonJS the same way, and treat dual-format support as something you can no longer assume.