Cannot run nixi build or nuxi prepare, if `node_modules` is not in the project root

[ashleysommer]

I know this is a fairly unsual setup.
Due to the corporate restrictions on the company laptop I'm using, I cannot keep my node_modules folder in the root of my Nuxt project.

Instead, I use the yarn "modules-folder" option to designate a different place to keep the node_modules folder on the system.

For example:

• My project "H:\Home\Me\Projects\nuxt_project\"
• The node_modules directory "C:\node\nuxt_project\node_modules"

I set the NODE_PATH environment variable with the location of the relevant node_modules location when invoking node commands, and it is able to correctly resolve the project dependencies.

The problem comes when invoking nuxi with commands build, prepare, preview, add, analyze, and some others.

 ERROR  Cannot resolve module "@nuxt/kit" (from: H:\Home\Me\Projects\nuxt_project\)                                                                                                                                                                                                                  7:07:03 pm  

    at resolveModuleURL (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/exsolve/dist/index.mjs:1294:19)
    at resolveModulePath (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/exsolve/dist/index.mjs:1313:20)
    at loadKit (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/@nuxt/cli/dist/shared/cli.qKvs7FJ2.mjs:6:21)
    at Object.run (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/@nuxt/cli/dist/chunks/build.mjs:42:23)
    at runCommand (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/citty/dist/index.mjs:316:26)
    at async runCommand (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/citty/dist/index.mjs:307:11)
    at async runMain (/C:/node/nuxt_project/node_modules/citty/dist/index.mjs:445:7)

My understanding of this issue is that nuxi uses exsolve resolver in the loadKit() function, when it tries to find the location of @nuxt/kit. Exsolve does not take into account the NODE_PATH env var, and also loadKit() uses the { from: rootDir } argument.
So that means nuxi always looks for @nuxt/kit in the project root dir, and cannot find it.

Is there any known way around this?