This is very similar to an issue that eslint upstream also had. Pnpm's linking installs plays a bit funky with typescript so it needs the package to declare some additional type exports for it to work.

I had the same error, but using a slightly different setup without tseslint.config(). I solved it by adding "eslint.config.mjs" to the exclude array in my tsconfig.json.

Upstream related issue:

eslint/eslint#19421

ESLint recommended workaround:
https://eslint.org/docs/latest/use/getting-started#manual-set-up

Thanks for the hint @ntnyq

I can confirm this also works for me

Hi, I've looked into this good first issue this week, and hope the following information helps :)
Here is the root cause analysis:

1. composite: true implies declaration: true by default, which makes typescript assume you'll generate a .d.mts for eslint.config.mjs, maybe like:

   declare const _default: import("@typescript-eslint/utils/ts-eslint").FlatConfig.ConfigArray;
   export default _default;

2. the default node-linker=isolated means dependencies are symlinked from the .pnpm directory.
3. and since @typescript-eslint/utils isn't in the project's runtime dependencies (i.e.,package.json), typescript can only recognize the real path that has a nested node_modules, rather than convert it to its simpler symlink path, which finally leads to the TS2742 error¹.

   @typescript-eslint/utils -> ../.pnpm/@typescript-eslint+utils@xxx/node_modules/@typescript-eslint/utils

Based on those, here are a few ways to address this issue—(just select the one suits your project):

1. exclude eslint.config.mjs in your tsconfig.json
   This lets typescript know you don’t need the eslint.config.d.mts file, you can use either include or exclude (might need to be aware that the latter has default values).

   "include": [
     // only include ts files
     "*.ts",
   ]

   "exclude": [
     // other items,
     "eslint.config.mjs",
   ],

2. set node-linker=hoisted in your .npmrc (as previous comment suggested)
   you will get a flat node_modules without symlinks are created, just like npm or yarn.

3. run pnpm install @typescript-eslint/utils to make this dependency explicit.
   this allows typescript to recognize its symlink mentioned above (as typescript automatically reads the dependencies in package.json)

4. export FlatConfig namespace from typescript-eslint
   this package is already in the dependencies, so typescript can correctly recognize its symlink. BTW, I saw that exporting FlatConfig was approved in issue #10848, and that PR hasn’t been updated yet, so not sure about what next steps will be, but I’d be happy to send a PR if needed.