^{Originally posted bybradzacher September 1, 2022}
Currently we don't use package.json exports, so anyone can import any file in any package by directly referencing a path within thedist folder - i.e.

import*asTSESLintfrom'@typescript-eslint/utils/dist/ts-eslint';

This is obviously a sub-par experience for consumers due to the deep path, and is a sub-par experience for us because any file technically forms part of our "external API".

In ESLint v8 they began using exports to lock down their package, and I think we should follow their lead to some degree.

I propose that we follow one of the following options:

1) export all of dist, without the dist

{"exports": {"./*":"./dist/*"  },"typesVersions": {"*": {"*": ["dist/*"]    }  }}

This is the least restrictive thing we could do - it would simply mean consumers needn't includedist/ in their import path - which is nice as it hides an implementation detail.

2) export all, but ban specific things

{"exports": {"./*":"./dist/*""./some-internal/file":null  },"typesVersions": {"*": {"*": ["dist/*"]    }  }}

This is slightly more restrictive, but still very permissive.
This would allow us to build APIs that are intended to be internal only and hide them, whilst still generally allowing all imports without thedist/.

3) export specific, allowed parts of our API

{"exports": {"./":"./dist/index","./ts-eslint":"./dist/ts-eslint/index","./ast-utils":"./dist/ast-utils/index",// ...  },"typesVersions": {"*": {"./":"./dist/index","./ts-eslint":"./dist/ts-eslint/index.d.ts","./ast-utils":"./dist/ast-utils/index.d.ts",// ...    }  }}

This is the most restrictive thing we could do as we would ban deep imports except those that we choose. It would also allow us to remove thedist/ from imports.