Problem with node_modules in yarn 2 workspaces: Cannot find plugin 'x'

Describe the issue When working with yarn 2 workspaces, node_modules are not located in the workspace-folder but in the root of the project.

architect throws an error when building:

- Cannot find plugin 'architect/plugin-remix'! Are you sure you have installed or created it correctly?
Error: Plugin error:
- Cannot find plugin 'architect/plugin-remix'! Are you sure you have installed or created it correctly?
    at format (/src/converter/node_modules/@architect/inventory/src/lib/error-fmt.js:15:13)

I traced the error back to @architect/inventory to the plugins-section: https://github.com/architect/inventory/blob/848958571ccad74753ee336dc47364f1298287dc/src/config/pragmas/plugins.js#L103

There it checks via cwd where the plugin may be. Maybe there is a way to adjust the cwd for this process?

Steps to reproduce

• Create a project where you would use yarn 2
• Add workspaces to the package.json root: workspaces: [ "app/*" ]
• Add a workspace where architect lives in app/package.json
• Install architect and a plugin
• Start the app

[HosseinAgha]

Hi @ryanblock,
Thanks for the fast response.
These are the steps:

1. first I created a yarn v3 monorepo using this guide (https://yarnpkg.com/getting-started/install)
2. then I initiated a new remix-run project using yarn dlx create-remix@latest
3. In the CLI wizard chose Just the basics and Architect
4. Then add the remix directory to yarn workspaces in the root package.json
5. And finally call yarn install anywhere in the repository
6. Now you have a yarn 3 project that uses plug-and-play for dependency resolution
7. First If you run yarn build in the remix project you’ll get many dependency error
8. These are because of the architect package relying on phantom dependencies (packages that you require but are not in your package.json). Here is my .yarnrc.yml that resolves these mistakes (it is better to resolve them in the packages but unfortunately I don’t have free time for a PR right now)

  "@architect/architect@*":
    dependencies:
      "@architect/inventory": "*"
      "@architect/utils": "*"
  "@architect/utils@*":
    dependencies:
      "aws-sdk": "*"
  "@architect/deploy@*":
    dependencies:
      "aws-sdk": "*"
  "@architect/asap@*":
    dependencies:
      "aws-sdk": "*"
  "@architect/env@*":
    dependencies:
      "minimist": 1.2.6

1. Finally after doing this you’ll be able to build the project but when your run yarn dev which using arc sandbox internally you encounter many errors like (cannot find module X in node_modules)

So to conclude architect packages have 2 issues that both are not standard Node.js practice and cause modern package managers to break or throw warnings:

1. you’ve required packages without directly adding them to the package that requires them (phantom dependencies), check yarn pnp docs.
2. you’ve required packages by providing their address in the node_modules instead of relying on the runtime to resolve them

Finally, I’m not sure that using yarn pnp or pnpm is a good idea in AWS lambda (definitely possible) but I know that users will definitely use them for their local development.

[HosseinAgha]

I had the similar issue using the remix architect template.
Many developers use yarn v2 pnp for package management and I think this is one of architect’s most significant shortcomings in terms of DevX, especially for Remix developers.
Custom module resolution logic always leads to unexpected behavior for your users. IMHO, simply using require.resolve for requiring packages is much better.