---
title: Avoid Barrel File Imports
impact: CRITICAL
impactDescription: 200-800ms import cost, slow builds
tags: bundle, imports, tree-shaking, barrel-files, performance
---

## Avoid Barrel File Imports

Import directly from source files instead of barrel files to avoid loading thousands of unused modules. **Barrel files** are entry points that re-export multiple modules (e.g., `index.js` that does `export * from './module'`).

Popular icon and component libraries can have **up to 10,000 re-exports** in their entry file. For many React packages, **it takes 200-800ms just to import them**, affecting both development speed and production cold starts.

**Why tree-shaking doesn't help:** When a library is marked as external (not bundled), the bundler can't optimize it. If you bundle it to enable tree-shaking, builds become substantially slower analyzing the entire module graph.

**Incorrect (imports entire library):**

```tsx
import { Check, X, Menu } from "lucide-react";
// Loads 1,583 modules, takes ~2.8s extra in dev
// Runtime cost: 200-800ms on every cold start

import { Button, TextField } from "@mui/material";
// Loads 2,225 modules, takes ~4.2s extra in dev
```

**Correct (imports only what you need):**

```tsx
import Check from "lucide-react/dist/esm/icons/check";
import X from "lucide-react/dist/esm/icons/x";
import Menu from "lucide-react/dist/esm/icons/menu";
// Loads only 3 modules (~2KB vs ~1MB)

import Button from "@mui/material/Button";
import TextField from "@mui/material/TextField";
// Loads only what you use
```

**Alternative (Next.js 13.5+):**

```js
// next.config.js - use optimizePackageImports
module.exports = {
  experimental: {
    optimizePackageImports: ["lucide-react", "@mui/material"],
  },
};

// Then you can keep the ergonomic barrel imports:
import { Check, X, Menu } from "lucide-react";
// Automatically transformed to direct imports at build time
```

Direct imports provide 15-70% faster dev boot, 28% faster builds, 40% faster cold starts, and significantly faster HMR.

Libraries commonly affected: `lucide-react`, `@mui/material`, `@mui/icons-material`, `@tabler/icons-react`, `react-icons`, `@headlessui/react`, `@radix-ui/react-*`, `lodash`, `ramda`, `date-fns`, `rxjs`, `react-use`.

Reference: [How we optimized package imports in Next.js](https://vercel.com/blog/how-we-optimized-package-imports-in-next-js)
