PNPM Workspaces + Standalone cannot find module get-network-host upon launch

[eddienubes]

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

https://github.com/eddienubes/next-pnpm-standalone-bug-repro/tree/main

To Reproduce

Preliminary actions

Standard monorepo setup, where one of the projects is next.js.

nvm use # (optionally install)
pnpm install
cd projects/ui
pnpm build
node .next/standalone/server.js # launch fails

Error:

Error: Cannot find module '../../lib/get-network-host'

Current vs. Expected behavior

ER:
Standalone server successfully launches
AR:
Server.js inside standalone folder fails to locate a module ../../lib/get-network-host
with error:

Error: Cannot find module '../../lib/get-network-host'
Require stack:
- /Users/admin/Code/next-bug/projects/ui/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]/node_modules/next/dist/server/lib/start-server.js
- /Users/admin/Code/next-bug/projects/ui/.next/standalone/server.js

Provide environment information

Operating System:
  Platform: darwin
  Arch: arm64
  Version: Darwin Kernel Version 24.3.0: Thu Jan  2 20:24:22 PST 2025; root:xnu-11215.81.4~3/RELEASE_ARM64_T6041
  Available memory (MB): 24576
  Available CPU cores: 12
Binaries:
  Node: 22.13.1
  npm: 10.9.2
  Yarn: N/A
  pnpm: 10.6.1
Relevant Packages:
  next: 15.2.3 // Latest available version is detected (15.2.3).
  eslint-config-next: N/A
  react: 19.0.0
  react-dom: 19.0.0
  typescript: 5.8.2
Next.js Config:
  output: standalone

Which area(s) are affected? (Select all that apply)

Output

Which stage(s) are affected? (Select all that apply)

next build (local)

Additional context

Upon further inspection I noticed that after pnpm install and before pnpm build (next build), the projects/ui/node_modules doesn't have .pnpm folder. The projects/ui/node_modules as expected contains symlinks to the root node_modules/.pnpm with next, react and react-dom packages.

However, after I run next build the contents of projects/ui/node_modules is modified and the .pnpm folder appears with:

• [email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]
• [email protected][email protected]
  The tree looks:

node_modules/.pnpm
├── [email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]
│   └── node_modules
│       └── next
│           └── dist
│               ├── compiled
│               │   └── jest-worker
│               │       ├── processChild.js
│               │       └── threadChild.js
│               ├── pages
│               │   ├── _app.js
│               │   └── _document.js
│               └── server
│                   ├── lib
│                   │   └── start-server.js
│                   ├── next-server.js
│                   ├── next.js
│                   ├── require-hook.js
│                   └── route-modules
│                       ├── app-page
...
│                       └── pages
...
└── [email protected][email protected]
    └── node_modules
        └── styled-jsx
            ├── index.js
            └── style.js

Almost the same contents appear in the standalone bundle itself:

.next/standalone/node_modules
├── next -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected]/node_modules/next
└── react -> ../../../node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/react

So, there's clearly nothing that can resolve to ../../lib/get-network-host.
For some reason the bundle next dist directory is truncated.

[HenriqueSenaDev]

Hello! This seems to be a #48017 replica.
In a nutshel, pnpm centralized storage with synlinks does not woks really well with Next standalone applications.
A workaround is configuring your .npmrc to force the traditional approach (used by npm and yarn) when installing dependencies.
node-linker=hoisted

[eddienubes]

@HenriqueSenaDev
I've seen that issue, however the node-linker=hoisted doesn't seem to have an effect on next build

Indeed, the node_modules directory becomes yarn-like flat and pnpm doesn't even create projects/ui/node_modules, but next build still creates a projects/ui/node_modules by itself with truncated next and styled-jsx packages.

This leads to Error: Cannot find module '../../lib/get-network-host' nevertheless (just tried it again with my repro)

[flaviodelgrosso]

@HenriqueSenaDev I've seen that issue, however the node-linker=hoisted doesn't seem to have an effect on next build

Indeed, the node_modules directory becomes yarn-like flat and pnpm doesn't even create projects/ui/node_modules, but next build still creates a projects/ui/node_modules by itself with truncated next and styled-jsx packages.

This leads to Error: Cannot find module '../../lib/get-network-host' nevertheless (just tried it again with my repro)

Same problem here, did you find any workaround about it in the meantime?

[subvertallchris]

Is everyone running into this using Next.js 15? If so, did it work correctly in Next.js 14? We're trying to deploy our Next.js 15 upgrade and right off the bat, we can see that the structure of the standalone folder is different in the new version. This causes symlinks to point to locations that don't exist anymore.

[eddienubes]

@subvertallchris @flaviodelgrosso
The only workaround I have is to set outputFileTracingRoot to the monorepo root like that:
outputFileTracingRoot: path.resolve(process.cwd(), '../../')
However, the server.js file will be deep inside .next/standalone/packages/ui/server.js

I think it's a minor quirk compared to a completely malfunctioning app 😄