Understanding Plugins

Presets are just plugin collections

A preset like @babel/preset-env is a curated list of plugins. You can use plugins individually for fine-grained control.

Using individual plugins

Add specific plugins in .babelrc to transform particular syntax. E.g., @babel/plugin-transform-optional-chaining for ?. operator.

{
  "plugins": [
    "@babel/plugin-transform-optional-chaining",
    "@babel/plugin-transform-nullish-coalescing-operator"
  ]
}

Plugins run before presets

Babel processes plugins first, then presets. Put experimental features in plugins; stable ones in presets.