fix: Nuxt DevTools (vite-plugin-inspect) breaks oxc-walker's parseSync resolution, causing oxc-walker: could not resolve a parseSync implementation across many plugin transforms

🐛 The bug

Summary

When Nuxt DevTools is enabled, plugin/component transforms that rely on oxc-walker (via @unhead, Nuxt's internal keyed-functions compiler macro, nuxt-schema-org, nuxt-auth-sanctum, etc.) intermittently or consistently fail with:

oxc-walker: could not resolve a parseSync implementation. Install oxc-parser or rolldown (and use rolldown/utils), or pass a parseSync function via the parseAndWalk options.

Disabling DevTools (devtools: { enabled: false } in nuxt.config.ts) makes the error disappear entirely and permanently, across every environment we tested.

Environment

Nuxt: 4.4.8 and 4.5.2 (reproduced on both)
Vite: 7.3.6 and 8.2.2 (reproduced on both — not specific to Vite 8/Rolldown)
Node: v26.8.1
npm: 12.0.2
OS: macOS (Darwin 25.6.0), Apple Silicon (arm64)
oxc-parser: 0.147.0 (installed and working correctly when tested standalone via node -e "require('oxc-parser').parseSync")
oxc-walker: 1.1.1

Reproduction

Any Nuxt project with devtools enabled (the default) and any module that triggers oxc-walker-based static analysis on plugins/components (this reproduces even on the official Nuxt starter kit — no extra modules required beyond what DevTools itself needs).
Run npm run dev (or npm run build).
Errors/warnings appear referencing multiple internal Nuxt plugin files (payload.client.js, revive-payload.*.js, router.js, unhead.js, user components like AppFooter.vue, etc.), each pointing to oxc-walker's resolveParseSync.

Example full stack trace (dev mode, triggered from a Vue component via Nuxt's keyed-functions compiler macro):

[plugin:nuxt:compiler:keyed-functions] oxc-walker: could not resolve a parseSync implementation. Install oxc-parser or rolldown (and use rolldown/utils), or pass a parseSync function via the parseAndWalk options.

/path/to/project/app/components/app/AppFooter.vue

at resolveParseSync (node_modules/oxc-walker/dist/index.mjs:174:8)
at parseAndWalk (node_modules/oxc-walker/dist/index.mjs:196:29)
at TransformPluginContext.handler (node_modules/nuxt/dist/index.mjs:4754:29)
at async file:///.../node_modules/vite-plugin-inspect/dist/shared/vite-plugin-inspect.Fv_Ybe1l...
at async EnvironmentPluginContainer.transform (node_modules/@nuxt/vite-builder/node_modules/vite/dist/...)
at async loadAndTransform (node_modules/@nuxt/vite-builder/node_modules/vite/dist/...)
at async viteTransformMiddleware (node_modules/@nuxt/vite-builder/node_modules/vite/dist/...)

Note that vite-plugin-inspect (bundled with/used by Nuxt DevTools) sits directly in the transform call stack, between Vite's plugin container and the point where oxc-walker fails to resolve parseSync.

Expected behavior

oxc-walker should resolve parseSync from oxc-parser regardless of whether DevTools/vite-plugin-inspect is wrapping the transform pipeline.

Actual behavior

With DevTools enabled, oxc-walker's internal resolveParseSync() (which uses createRequire(import.meta.url) from its own module location) fails to locate oxc-parser, even though:

oxc-parser is correctly installed and resolvable via both require() and dynamic import() when tested standalone.
npm ls oxc-parser and npm ls oxc-walker show a single, deduplicated version each across the whole dependency tree.

This strongly suggests vite-plugin-inspect's transform wrapping changes the module context (e.g. import.meta.url, or how the transform function is invoked/bound) in a way that breaks oxc-walker's createRequire-based resolution of oxc-parser.

Confirmed fix

ts
// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  devtools: { enabled: false },
})

After disabling DevTools and restarting the dev server (with .nuxt and node_modules/.vite cleared for good measure), the error disappears completely and does not return, across multiple terminal environments (plain Terminal.app and VS Code's integrated terminal) and across both a dev-only session and a build → dev cycle.

🛠️ To reproduce

🌈 Expected behavior

ℹ️ Additional context

p.s. bugreport generated with Claude AI.

Start by reproducing the failure in the Nuxt starter kit with DevTools enabled using npm run dev or npm run build. Trace the transform path through vite-plugin-inspect to oxc-walker's resolveParseSync and Nuxt's keyed-functions compiler macro; done means oxc-parser resolves successfully and the reported transform errors disappear without disabling DevTools.