diff --git a/.changes/api-transpile.md b/.changes/api-transpile.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..98464b207
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/api-transpile.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"tauri.js": patch
+---
+
+Transpile the TS API to ES5.
+Expose CJS as .js and ESM as .mjs.
diff --git a/cli/tauri.js/api-src/tsconfig.json b/cli/tauri.js/api-src/tsconfig.json
index f6c70fb98..bf08df346 100644
--- a/cli/tauri.js/api-src/tsconfig.json
+++ b/cli/tauri.js/api-src/tsconfig.json
@@ -1,13 +1,8 @@
 {
   "compilerOptions": {
-    "outDir": "./dist/",
     "strict": true,
-    "module": "commonjs",
-    "target": "es5",
     "allowJs": true,
     "esModuleInterop": true,
-    "resolveJsonModule": true,
-    "moduleResolution": "node",
     "baseUrl": ".",
     "paths": {
       "types": ["@types"]
diff --git a/cli/tauri.js/package.json b/cli/tauri.js/package.json
index 9ccbd7e86..13ccec874 100644
--- a/cli/tauri.js/package.json
+++ b/cli/tauri.js/package.json
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
   },
   "scripts": {
     "build": "yarn build:api && yarn build:typedefs && yarn build:webpack",
-    "build:webpack": "webpack --progress",
-    "build:api": "rollup -c --silent && yarn build:typedefs",
+    "build:webpack": "rimraf ./dist && webpack --progress",
+    "build:api": "rimraf ./api && rollup -c --silent && yarn build:typedefs",
     "build:typedefs": "yarn tsc ./api-src/index.ts --declaration --emitDeclarationOnly --outDir api",
     "build-release": "yarn build --display none --progress false",
     "test": "jest --runInBand --no-cache --testPathIgnorePatterns=\"(build|dev)\"",
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@
     "lockfile-lint": "4.3.7",
     "promise": "8.1.0",
     "raw-loader": "4.0.1",
+    "rimraf": "^3.0.2",
     "rollup": "2.18.2",
     "rollup-plugin-terser": "6.1.0",
     "rollup-plugin-typescript2": "0.27.1",
diff --git a/cli/tauri.js/rollup.config.js b/cli/tauri.js/rollup.config.js
index 3316a9d70..1a304edbb 100644
--- a/cli/tauri.js/rollup.config.js
+++ b/cli/tauri.js/rollup.config.js
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ import { terser } from 'rollup-plugin-terser'
 import resolve from '@rollup/plugin-node-resolve'
 import commonjs from '@rollup/plugin-commonjs'
 import sucrase from '@rollup/plugin-sucrase'
-import { getBabelOutputPlugin } from '@rollup/plugin-babel'
+import babel, { getBabelOutputPlugin } from '@rollup/plugin-babel'
+import typescript from '@rollup/plugin-typescript'
 import pkg from './package.json'
 
 export default [{
@@ -23,34 +24,39 @@ export default [{
   perf:           true,
   output:         [
     {
-      dir: 'api/', // if you want to consume in node but want it tiny
+      dir: 'api/',
       entryFileNames: '[name].js',
       format:  'cjs',
-      plugins: [ terser() ],
       exports: 'named',
       globals: {}
     },
     {
-      dir: 'api/esm/',  // if you will be transpiling and minifying yourself
-      entryFileNames: '[name].js',
+      dir: 'api/',
+      entryFileNames: '[name].mjs',
       format:    'esm',
-      sourcemap: true,
       exports: 'named',
       globals: {}
     }
   ],
   plugins: [
     commonjs({}),
-    sucrase({
-      exclude: ['node_modules'],
-      transforms: ['typescript']
-    }),
     resolve({
     // pass custom options to the resolve plugin
       customResolveOptions: {
         moduleDirectory: 'node_modules'
       }
-    })
+    }),
+    typescript({
+      tsconfig: './api-src/tsconfig.json'
+    }),
+    babel({
+      configFile: false,
+      presets: [
+        ['@babel/preset-env'],
+        ['@babel/preset-typescript']
+      ]
+    }),
+    terser()
   ],
   external: [
     ...Object.keys(pkg.dependencies || {}),
diff --git a/cli/tauri.js/yarn.lock b/cli/tauri.js/yarn.lock
index 2906c118b..1f6f3279e 100644
--- a/cli/tauri.js/yarn.lock
+++ b/cli/tauri.js/yarn.lock
@@ -8200,7 +8200,7 @@ rimraf@^2.5.4, rimraf@^2.6.3:
   dependencies:
     glob "^7.1.3"
 
-rimraf@^3.0.0:
+rimraf@^3.0.0, rimraf@^3.0.2:
   version "3.0.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/rimraf/-/rimraf-3.0.2.tgz#f1a5402ba6220ad52cc1282bac1ae3aa49fd061a"
   integrity sha512-JZkJMZkAGFFPP2YqXZXPbMlMBgsxzE8ILs4lMIX/2o0L9UBw9O/Y3o6wFw/i9YLapcUJWwqbi3kdxIPdC62TIA==