mongodb crashes on connect: require('../../../package.json') in client_metadata.js resolves under Node but not Perry — only reproduces inside the real 162-module graph #10758

Compiling mongodb 7.5.0 from real source succeeds (162 modules, 3m12s), but the driver crashes during client.connect() — inside its own handshake code, before any CRUD runs.

Error [MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find module '../../../package.json'

Found by the package-compilability probe on 91a566c8af (v0.5.1605), Linux x64.

The site

node_modules/mongodb/lib/cmap/handshake/client_metadata.js:12:

const NODE_DRIVER_VERSION = require('../../../package.json').version;

A three-levels-up relative require() of a JSON file, resolving to the package's own package.json. It fires while building the wire-protocol handshake metadata, so it is on the connect path and unavoidable — every mongodb user hits it immediately.

Node resolves this fine; Perry does not, in this graph.

What I could not reproduce, which is the interesting part

Two isolation attempts both failed to reproduce:

1. A synthetic package literally named mongodb with the same three-levels-deep relative-require-of-JSON shape.
2. A copy of the real 240-line client_metadata.js dropped into that synthetic package.

Both resolved correctly under Perry. The failure only appears inside mongodb's actual 162-module graph. So the shape alone is not sufficient — something about the surrounding graph (module ordering, a cached resolution, the depth or identity of the requiring module) participates.

That is worth stating prominently because it means the obvious fix — "make three-levels-up relative JSON requires work" — may already be true, and the real defect is in how the path is resolved for this module in this graph. Anyone starting from the error text alone will write a test that passes.

Reproduction

mkdir mongo-probe && cd mongo-probe
npm install mongodb@7.5.0
# package.json: { "perry": { "compilePackages": ["mongodb"] } }
# fixture.ts: connect to a local mongod, insert and read one document
perry compile fixture.ts -o fixture && ./fixture

A local mongod is needed; the crash happens at connect(), before any collection work.

Not determined

Whether the resolution failure is about the relative path, the .json extension, the requiring module's own resolved identity, or a cache interaction — only that it needs the real graph to manifest.