Feedback from pi extension loader: lazy transform, bare aliases, native passthrough, cache invalidation #467

earendil-works/pi uses jiti 2.7 to load TypeScript extensions in three host shapes (source TS, bundled Node, Bun/Node-SEA binary). Some workarounds we carry that could be addressed upstream:

1. Lazy transform entry. jiti/static pulls Babel into startup. We patch it at bundle time into a shim that require("jiti") on first createJiti() call (build script). A jiti/lazy entry or a transform: () => import(...) option would avoid the bundler plugin.

2. Bare specifiers in alias. alias only accepts absolute paths, so we resolve host packages manually via import.meta.resolve (loader.ts). Resolving bare specifiers from parentURL would drop most of that.

3. Per-specifier native passthrough. tryNative is all-or-nothing and must be off in bundled/SEA mode. We need @earendil-works/* to resolve to the host's module instances so instanceof and module-level singletons work across the boundary; today that's virtualModules in bundled mode, alias otherwise, plus globalThis sharing on the host side. Something like nativeModules: ["@earendil-works/*"] (or virtualModules working uniformly) would unify it.

4. Cache invalidation API. For hot reload we set moduleCache: false and create a fresh createJiti() per load. A jiti.invalidate(path) would let us keep one instance.

5. Skipping transform for specific files. Emscripten glue breaks under Babel; we new Function it to bypass jiti. A skipTransform filter or per-import { transform: false } would be cleaner.

Happy to send PRs for any of these if you agree on direction.