Guide
Configuration

Configuration

tship can be configured via:

  1. tship property in tsconfig.json (simple projects)
  2. tship.config.ts file (advanced with plugins)
  3. CLI options (overrides for specific builds)

Activation

tship runs in plain tsc mode until you add at least one meaningful option: formats, outDirs, outDir, autoExports, plugins, cjsModule, cjsModuleResolution, esmModule, or esmModuleResolution.
An empty "tship": {} is treated the same as no configuration.

Priority

CLI options > tship.config.ts > tsconfig.json > tsconfig compilerOptions

Options

OptionTypeDefaultDescription
formats("cjs"|"esm")[]["esm"] (only when tship is active)Output formats
outDirs{ cjs?: string; esm?: string }follows compilerOptions.outDirCustom output directories per format
outDirstring–Single directory for all formats (overrides outDirs)
autoExportsboolean | AutoExportsOptionsfalseAuto-update package.json exports
pluginsTshipPlugin[][]Build pipeline plugins
projectstringauto-detectedPath to tsconfig.json
cjsModulestring"CommonJS"Override module for CJS builds (must be "CommonJS")
cjsModuleResolutionstring"Node10"Override moduleResolution for CJS builds (must be "Node10")
esmModulestring"ESNext"Override module for ESM builds
esmModuleResolutionstring"NodeNext"Override moduleResolution for ESM builds

Output directory resolution

  1. If tship.outDir is given → all formats go there.
  2. Else if tship.outDirs has entries → they are used (with defaults for missing keys).
  3. Else if compilerOptions.outDir is set in tsconfig → both formats share that directory.
  4. Else → dist/cjs and dist/esm are created.

When multiple formats share the same directory, tship renames files (.cjs/.mjs) to avoid conflicts.

Example: Use tsconfig.json outDir directly

{
  "compilerOptions": { "outDir": "./build" },
  "tship": { "formats": ["cjs", "esm"] }
}

Output: ./build/index.cjs, ./build/index.mjs, etc.

OverviewDual-format Output