#20370ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND when trying to run Vite inside a Docker container

Describe the bug

I'm migrating my website to Vite & React. My website uses Docker for containerization. But when i try to use Vite in my container (vite), this happens:

node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:274
    throw new ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND(
          ^
 
Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find module '/root/site/frontend/node_modules/rollup/parseAst' imported from /root/site/frontend/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/dep-CXCa-anf.js
    at finalizeResolution (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:274:11)
    at moduleResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:859:10)
    at defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/resolve:983:11)
    at ModuleLoader.defaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:801:12)
    at #cachedDefaultResolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:725:25)
    at ModuleLoader.resolve (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:708:38)
    at ModuleLoader.getModuleJobForImport (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:309:38)
    at #link (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:202:49) {
  code: 'ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  url: 'file:///root/site/frontend/node_modules/rollup/parseAst'
}
 
Node.js v24.3.0

Note that npm install was ran in the container, so the OS/arch mismatch cause is eliminated.

What i've tried

• I double checked that rollup/parseAst exists at path /root/site/frontend/node_modules/rollup/dist/parseAst.js. Vite works perfectly out-of-the-box on my macOS host.

• I saw this, but i can't change the extension because i have no control over the code of the libraries.

• I tried using the npm flag --es-module-specifier-resolution=node as in this answer, but i couldn't pass it to npm because for some reason --node-arg and -n parameters got removed from npx.

Reproduction

see reproduction steps

Steps to reproduce

1. npm create vite@latest
2. Create the following Dockerfile:

FROM node:24

COPY . /root/site
COPY vite.config.ts /root/site/vite.config.ts

WORKDIR /root/site
RUN npx tsc

ENTRYPOINT exec npx \
  vite \
  --port 8002 \
  --strictPort \
  --open false

3. Overwrite package.json:

{
  "name": "toolbox-io-frontend",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "npm run build:ts && npm run build:scss && npm run minify:html",
    "build:ts": "npm run compile:ts && npm run minify:ts",
    "compile:ts": "tsc",
    "minify:ts": "find . -name '*.js' -not -path './node_modules/*' -not -path './lib/*' -exec terser {} -o {} -m \\;",
    "build:scss": "sass css:css --no-source-map -s compressed && postcss css/*.css --use autoprefixer --no-map -d css",
    "minify:html": "find . -name '*.html' -not -path './node_modules/*' -exec html-minifier --collapse-whitespace --remove-comments --remove-optional-tags --remove-redundant-attributes --remove-script-type-attributes --remove-tag-whitespace --use-short-doctype --minify-css true --minify-js true -o {} {} \\;",
    "clean": "find . -name '*.js' -not -path './node_modules/*' -not -path './lib/*' -delete && find css -name '*.css' -delete"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "[@highlightjs](https://github.com/highlightjs)/cdn-assets": "^11.11.1",
    "highlight.js": "^11.11.1",
    "marked": "^16.0.0",
    "react": "^19.1.0",
    "react-dom": "^19.1.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "[@types](https://github.com/types)/jquery": "^3.5.32",
    "[@eslint](https://github.com/eslint)/js": "^9.29.0",
    "[@types](https://github.com/types)/react": "^19.1.8",
    "[@types](https://github.com/types)/react-dom": "^19.1.6",
    "[@vitejs](https://github.com/vitejs)/plugin-react": "^4.5.2",
    "eslint": "^9.29.0",
    "eslint-plugin-react-hooks": "^5.2.0",
    "eslint-plugin-react-refresh": "^0.4.20",
    "globals": "^16.2.0",
    "typescript": "~5.8.3",
    "typescript-eslint": "^8.34.1",
    "vite": "^7.0.0"
  }
}

4. npm install
5. docker build -t site .
6. docker run -it -p 8002:8002 site
7. see the error

System Info

System:
    OS: macOS 26.0
    CPU: (10) arm64 Apple M4
    Memory: 116.91 MB / 16.00 GB
    Shell: 5.9 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 20.19.3 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.3/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.22 - /opt/homebrew/bin/yarn
    npm: 10.8.2 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.3/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 138.0.7204.93
    Safari: 26.0
  npmPackages:
    [@vitejs](https://github.com/vitejs)/plugin-react: ^4.5.2 => 4.6.0 
    vite: ^7.0.0 => 7.0.2

Used Package Manager

npm

Logs

No response

Validations

• Follow our Code of Conduct
• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Make sure this is a Vite issue and not a framework-specific issue. For example, if it's a Vue SFC related bug, it should likely be reported to vuejs/core instead.
• Check that this is a concrete bug. For Q&A open a GitHub Discussion or join our Discord Chat Server.
• The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.