Why searching only node_modules?

[deostroll]

Seeking comments from the team on node-red intended use/design.

Version used: 4.0.2
Node-runtime - 20.14.0 & 18.x
os: windows, linux

Steps:

1. Setup a new nodejs project and install node-red as dependency
2. Author a custom nr node inside project - location nodes/cust-node1. Files supplied further below. (Assets 1 & 2)
3. Added corresponding section in package.json for node-red to discover custom node. (Asset # 3)
4. Start node red using npx. (npx node-red)

Asset # 1 - cust-node1.js

module.exports = function(RED) {
    let delayArray = [5, 10, 12];
    let delayLength = delayArray.length;

    function  CustNode1(config) {
        RED.nodes.createNode(this,config);
        var node = this;
        node.on('input', function(msg) {
            let idx = Math.floor(Math.random() * delayLength);
            let timeoutSeconds = delayArray[idx];
            setTimeout(() => {
                let payload = { timeoutSeconds };
                msg.payload = { ...msg.payload, ...payload };
                node.send(msg);
            }, timeoutSeconds * 1000);
        });
    }
    console.log('Node registered');
    RED.nodes.registerType("cust-node1",CustNode1);
}

Asset # 2 - cust-node1.html

<script type="text/javascript">
    RED.nodes.registerType('cust-node1',{
        category: 'function',
        color: '#a6bbcf',
        defaults: {
            name: {value:""}
        },
        inputs: 1,
        outputs: 1,
        // icon: "file.svg",
        label: function() {
            return this.name||"cust-node1";
        }
    });
</script>

<script type="text/html" data-template-name="cust-node1">
    <div class="form-row">
        <label for="node-input-name"><i class="fa fa-tag"></i> Name</label>
        <input type="text" id="node-input-name" placeholder="Name">
    </div>
</script>

<script type="text/html" data-help-name="cust-node1">
    <p>A simple node that adds a random delay in the flow to simulate something async</p>
</script>

Asset #3 - snippet that should go into package.json

  "node-red" : {
    "nodes": {
      "cust-node1": "nodes/cust-node1/cust-node1.js"
    }
  }

On starting node-red in manner mentioned above, the custom node does not get registered.

To workaround this issue I did the following:

1. copied package.json into the node_modules folder
2. modified the "cust-node1": "nodes/cust-node1/cust-node1.js" line in the package.json file to "cust-node1": "../nodes/cust-node1/cust-node1.js"
3. Started node-red in the manner above (using npx).

Narrowed down the issue to here: node-red/packages/node_modules/@node-red/registry/lib/localfilesystem.js at 4.0.2 · node-red/node-red · GitHub

In this loop it misses checking out on the project's package.json

I don't understand why it was written that way.

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