I am authoring a server in Node.js. I am using three things:

• 100% ESM-Only with type: module and *.js extension for compiled files.
• TypeScript with project references.
• The subpath imports.

My project directory structure is:

REPO
|- api
|   |-- index.ts
|   |-- tsconfig.json
|- server
|   |-- index.ts
|   |-- tsconfig.json 
|- tsconfig.json
|- package.json

My package.json has following subpath imports:

{
  name: "my-app",
  imports: {
    "#api": "./api/index.js",
  }
}

The top-level tsconfig.json has references:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noEmit": true,
    "module": "NodeNext",
    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
    "verbatimModuleSyntax": true
  },
  "references": [
    { "path": "./api/tsconfig.json" },
    { "path": "./server/tsconfig.json" },
  ],
  "include": [],
  "files": []
}

I am using subpath imports in my server/index.js like following:

import { graphql } from '#api';

async function main() {
   const response = await graphql('query-string');
}

main();

When I run the server in development mode using npx tsx --watch ./server/index.ts, it just works and tsx is able to properly resolve the ./api/index.ts file accordingly.

The problem happens when I compile this project for production. The project gets compiled to dist folder. In the docker image, only following files are present:

WORKSPACE
|- dist
|   |-- api
|   |   |-- index.js
|   |-- server
|   |   |-- index.js
|- package.json

When I try to run node ./dist/server/index.js it gives as error as it cannot fild the api/index.js file in the root of the folder.

I have two questions:

1. What is the correct mechanism to handle subpath imports differently for development and production environments in ESM-only mode?
2. Are they any recommended best practices around this pattern?