parent-module

Get the path of the parent module

This module provides a reliable way to get the file path of the module that called your code, working correctly with both CommonJS and ESM modules.

Install

npm install parent-module

Usage

// bar.js
import parentModule from 'parent-module';

export default function bar() {
    console.log(parentModule());
    //=> '/Users/sindresorhus/dev/unicorn/foo.js'
}

// foo.js
import bar from './bar.js';

bar();

API

parentModule(filePath?)

Returns: string | undefined

Returns the file path of the immediate parent module, or undefined if there is no parent module (for example, when called from the top-level of an entry module).

filePath

Type: string
Default: import.meta.filename

The file path of the module for which to get the parent path.

Useful for getting the parent of a specific module when the call traverses multiple module levels.

Tip

Combine it with read-package-up to read the package.json of the parent module.

import path from 'node:path';
import {readPackageUpSync} from 'read-package-up';
import parentModule from 'parent-module';

const parent = parentModule();
if (parent) {
    console.log(readPackageUpSync({cwd: path.dirname(parent)}).pkg);
    //=> {name: 'chalk', version: '1.0.0', …}
}