[workers-utils] Fix compatibility date detection in create-cloudflare

[irvinebroque]

Fixes #12155.

When running npm create cloudflare@latest, the compatibility date detection was failing and falling back to a hardcoded date (2025-09-27) instead of using the current workerd compatibility date.

Root Cause: module.createRequire() was being called with a directory path (e.g., /path/to/project). Node.js treats this as a filename at that location and starts module resolution from the parent directory (/path/to). This caused getLocalWorkerdCompatibilityDate() to fail to find miniflare in the project's node_modules.

Fix: Append package.json to the project path when calling createRequire(), ensuring module resolution starts from the correct directory.

// Before (broken - looks in parent directory's node_modules)
module.createRequire('/path/to/project')

// After (fixed - looks in project's node_modules)  
module.createRequire('/path/to/project/package.json')

---

Example output:

npx https://pkg.pr.new/create-cloudflare@12156

...

╭ Configuring your application for Cloudflare Step 2 of 3
│
├ Installing wrangler A command line tool for building Cloudflare Workers
│ installed via `npm install wrangler --save-dev`
│
├ Retrieving current workerd compatibility date
│ compatibility date 2026-01-20

^ correct compat date — versus #12155 shows wrong compat date

---

• Tests
  • Tests included/updated
  • Automated tests not possible - manual testing has been completed as follows:
  • Additional testing not necessary because:
• Public documentation
  • Cloudflare docs PR(s):
  • Documentation not necessary because: This is an internal bug fix with no user-facing API changes

---

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Latest commit: c41e7df

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[pkg-pr-new]

create-cloudflare

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/create-cloudflare@12156

@cloudflare/kv-asset-handler

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/kv-asset-handler@12156

miniflare

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/miniflare@12156

@cloudflare/pages-shared

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/pages-shared@12156

@cloudflare/unenv-preset

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/unenv-preset@12156

@cloudflare/vite-plugin

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/vite-plugin@12156

@cloudflare/vitest-pool-workers

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/vitest-pool-workers@12156

@cloudflare/workers-editor-shared

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/workers-editor-shared@12156

@cloudflare/workers-utils

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/@cloudflare/workers-utils@12156

wrangler

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/wrangler@12156

commit: c41e7df

[devin-ai-integration]

✅ Devin Review: No Issues Found

Devin Review analyzed this PR and found no potential bugs to report.

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[petebacondarwin]

I just tried using the preview version:

pnpx https://pkg.pr.new/create-cloudflare@12156 --no-auto-update

But I still see:

╭ Configuring your application for Cloudflare Step 2 of 3
│
├ Installing wrangler A command line tool for building Cloudflare Workers
│ installed via `pnpm install wrangler --save-dev`
│
├ Retrieving current workerd compatibility date
│ compatibility date  Could not find workerd date, falling back to 2025-09-27

[petebacondarwin]

I don't think this is the correct fix for create-cloudflare. I think this bug was introduced by #11620 (cc @dario-piotrowicz), where the logic changed from hitting the npm registry to looking for a local copy. I suspect that we are just not able to find a local copy using require but I don't know why yet.

[petebacondarwin]

OK so I built it locally and ran it via a direct path to the cli.js file and indeed that does seem to fix it.
So I guess there is just something funny with the preview in this PR.