From ef87ce4afbee6045808f3464ef4fa30a4cfab2e0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Phantom-d-e-v <82759425+Phantom-d-e-v@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:54:31 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] doc: document '.' and '..' specifiers in ESM_RESOLVE
 algorithm

The ESM_RESOLVE algorithm's relative-specifier step only mentioned
specifiers starting with '/', './', or '../'. A bare '.' or '..'
specifier is also treated as relative and resolves to a directory,
throwing ERR_UNSUPPORTED_DIR_IMPORT (see lib/internal/modules/esm/resolve.js
isRelativeSpecifier). Document this case so the spec matches the resolver.

Fixes: https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/39873
---
 doc/api/esm.md | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/doc/api/esm.md b/doc/api/esm.md
index 7bee6777458375..ebe64b8b86270d 100644
--- a/doc/api/esm.md
+++ b/doc/api/esm.md
@@ -1022,7 +1022,8 @@ The resolver can throw the following errors:
 > 2. If _specifier_ is a valid URL, then
 >    1. Set _resolved_ to the result of parsing and reserializing
 >       _specifier_ as a URL.
-> 3. Otherwise, if _specifier_ starts with _"/"_, _"./"_, or _"../"_, then
+> 3. Otherwise, if _specifier_ starts with _"/"_, _"./"_, or _"../"_, or
+>    _specifier_ equals _"."_ or _".."_, then
 >    1. Set _resolved_ to the URL resolution of _specifier_ relative to
 >       _parentURL_.
 > 4. Otherwise, if _specifier_ starts with _"#"_, then