What is the "module" package.json field for?
This is used by bundler tools for ESM (ECMAScript Module) detection. The Rollup documentation says it pretty well:
If your
package.json
file also has amodule
field, ES6-aware tools like Rollup and webpack 2 will import the ES6 module version directly.
This article on Rollup 1.0 says it another way:
The
main
field makes sure that Node users usingrequire
will be served the UMD version. Themodule
field is not an official npm feature but a common convention among bundlers to designate how to import an ESM version of our library.
Further discussion of pkg.module
is on the Rollup Github Wiki and the webpack Docs.
Update: April 2022
The module
field is not officially defined by Node.js and support is not planned. Instead, the Node.js community settled on package exports which they believe is more versatile.
For practical reasons JavaScript bundlers will continue to support the module
field. The esbuild docs explain when to use module
as well as related fields main
and browser
.
Original Answer
Is
"module"
an official npm property or is this a convention of some kind?
It's a proposal, but likely to be supported due to de facto usage.
Is there documentation for this somewhere?
There is, in fact, and it can be found right here and later removed here.
What's it for?
ES6 Module Interoperability in Node. Additional discussion can be found here and here. And here's a blog post from Rich Harris talking more about it.