webpack a module that contains node_modules - npm

Question

Question
I want to make changes to an open source JavaScript library. Using webpack and npm and keeping everything local, what options do I have to make changes to a local module and import it into project in place of an public npm module downloaded from the registry? The local module and consuming app will also be source controlled under two separate git repositories.
Problem
I am testing this within an Aurelia app, but I think it is a webpack and npm problem. I have an app called my-app which has a dependency on aurelia-binding. I wish to make local changes to aurelia-binding and push them to a fork in GitHub. My project structure looks like this:
└───my-app
├───.git
├───dist
├───node_modules
│ └───aurelia-binding
| ├───.git
│ ├───dist
│ └───src
└───src
When built and run, everything works as expected. To make a change to aurelia-binding and test them in my-app, I need to install its dependencies and build it. This results in a structure like this:
└───my-app
├───dist
├───node_modules
│ └───aurelia-binding
| ├───.git
│ ├───dist
| ├───node_modules
| | └───dependencies...
│ └───src
└───src
When the node_modules are installed on the dependency, webpack throws an error at runtime. The error may look like an issue with the aurlia module, but I do not believe this is the case.
Unhandled rejection Error: Error invoking SVGAnalyzer. Check the inner error for details.
------------------------------------------------
Inner Error:
Message: __WEBPACK_IMPORTED_MODULE_1_aurelia_pal__.a.createElement is not a function
I have also tried this using npm link with the library cloned next to my-app instead of within in but got the same result.

Answer 1

I used the following addition to the webpack.config.js to be able to use npm/yarn linked packages. It forces webpack to resolve the modules only using the main node_modules and not the "nearest" ones.
resolve: {
extensions: [".ts", ".js"],
symlinks: false,
modules: ["ClientApp", path.resolve('node_modules')],
}
Where "ClientApp" is the folder where my aurelia app is located. The symlinks parameter is used to prevent webpack from resolving the symlinked path to an absolute path.
A word of warning, with this setup you circumvent version checking by npm so you are responsible for linking a compatible version.