# Inside a pipeline: demystifying Vite and its plugins

> Learn the essentials of Vite: its ESM development server, on-demand transformations, plugin system, and virtual modules.

- Date: 2026-06-09
- Event: [Paris TypeScript](<https://typescript.paris/>)
- Location: Paris, France
- Topics: bundlers, esm, module-transforms, plugin-development, virtual-modules, vite

## Resources

- [Slides](<https://talks.soubiran.dev/2026-06-09/paris-typescript>)
- [PDF](<https://talks.soubiran.dev/2026-06-09/paris-typescript/pdf>)
- [Source code](<https://talks.soubiran.dev/2026-06-09/paris-typescript/src>)

## Summary

Vite processes requests between a project's files and the browser, transforming modules as they are requested and bundling the application for production. This talk uses images and other non-JavaScript imports to show why the browser receives JavaScript instead of the original source format.

It then introduces the three main plugin hooks, `resolveId`, `load`, and `transform`, and shows how multiple plugins pass module data through the pipeline. The final section explains virtual modules and how a plugin can generate code that does not exist on disk.