diff --git a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/common_preset.js b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/common_preset.js
index 45d726f6e28b4a..52ffc31598cb3f 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/common_preset.js
+++ b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/common_preset.js
@@ -17,32 +17,47 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
-module.exports = {
-  presets: [require.resolve('@babel/preset-typescript'), require.resolve('@babel/preset-react')],
-  plugins: [
-    require.resolve('@kbn/elastic-idx/babel'),
-    require.resolve('babel-plugin-add-module-exports'),
+const path = require('path');
+const REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', '..');
 
-    // The class properties proposal was merged with the private fields proposal
-    // into the "class fields" proposal. Babel doesn't support this combined
-    // proposal yet, which includes private field, so this transform is
-    // TECHNICALLY stage 2, but for all intents and purposes it's stage 3
-    //
-    // See https://github.com/babel/proposals/issues/12 for progress
-    require.resolve('@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties'),
-  ],
-  overrides: [
-    {
-      // Babel 7 don't support the namespace feature on typescript code.
-      // With namespaces only used for type declarations, we can securely
-      // strip them off for babel on x-pack infra/siem plugins
+exports.createConfig = (rootPath) => {
+  if (!rootPath) {
+    rootPath = REPO_ROOT;
+  }
+
+  //console.log('rootPath', rootPath);
+
+  return {
+    presets: [require.resolve('@babel/preset-typescript'), require.resolve('@babel/preset-react')],
+    plugins: [
+      require.resolve('@kbn/elastic-idx/babel'),
+      require.resolve('babel-plugin-add-module-exports'),
+
+      // The class properties proposal was merged with the private fields proposal
+      // into the "class fields" proposal. Babel doesn't support this combined
+      // proposal yet, which includes private field, so this transform is
+      // TECHNICALLY stage 2, but for all intents and purposes it's stage 3
       //
-      // See https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/8244#issuecomment-466548733
-      test: [
-        /x-pack[\/\\]legacy[\/\\]plugins[\/\\]infra[\/\\].*[\/\\]graphql/,
-        /x-pack[\/\\]legacy[\/\\]plugins[\/\\]siem[\/\\].*[\/\\]graphql/,
-      ],
-      plugins: [[require.resolve('babel-plugin-typescript-strip-namespaces')]],
-    },
-  ],
+      // See https://github.com/babel/proposals/issues/12 for progress
+      require.resolve('@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties'),
+      [require.resolve('babel-plugin-module-resolver'), {
+        extensions: ['.js', '.jsx', '.ts', '.tsx'],
+        root: rootPath,
+      }],
+    ],
+    overrides: [
+      {
+        // Babel 7 don't support the namespace feature on typescript code.
+        // With namespaces only used for type declarations, we can securely
+        // strip them off for babel on x-pack infra/siem plugins
+        //
+        // See https://github.com/babel/babel/issues/8244#issuecomment-466548733
+        test: [
+          /x-pack[\/\\]legacy[\/\\]plugins[\/\\]infra[\/\\].*[\/\\]graphql/,
+          /x-pack[\/\\]legacy[\/\\]plugins[\/\\]siem[\/\\].*[\/\\]graphql/,
+        ],
+        plugins: [[require.resolve('babel-plugin-typescript-strip-namespaces')]],
+      },
+    ],
+  };
 };
diff --git a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/node_preset.js b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/node_preset.js
index c4d9193357d784..057bc8a4be28db 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/node_preset.js
+++ b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/node_preset.js
@@ -17,7 +17,9 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
-module.exports = () => {
+module.exports = (_, options) => {
+  //console.log('node_preset', options);
+
   return {
     presets: [
       [
@@ -40,7 +42,7 @@ module.exports = () => {
           corejs: 2,
         },
       ],
-      require('./common_preset'),
+      require('./common_preset').createConfig(options.rootPath),
     ],
     plugins: [
       [
diff --git a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/package.json b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/package.json
index 0c9f50e11883b3..cd6effb77d3210 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/package.json
+++ b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/package.json
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     "@babel/preset-typescript": "7.3.3",
     "@kbn/elastic-idx": "1.0.0",
     "babel-plugin-add-module-exports": "1.0.2",
+    "babel-plugin-module-resolver": "3.2.0",
     "babel-plugin-transform-define": "1.3.1",
     "babel-plugin-typescript-strip-namespaces": "1.1.1"
   }
diff --git a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/webpack_preset.js b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/webpack_preset.js
index a00f5ec556b962..538ee493f69dea 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-babel-preset/webpack_preset.js
+++ b/packages/kbn-babel-preset/webpack_preset.js
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ module.exports = () => {
           corejs: 2,
         },
       ],
-      require('./common_preset'),
+      require('./common_preset').createConfig(),
     ]
   };
 };
diff --git a/packages/kbn-eslint-import-resolver-kibana/import_resolver_kibana.js b/packages/kbn-eslint-import-resolver-kibana/import_resolver_kibana.js
index 5c409ade260b13..8de7a890a28438 100755
--- a/packages/kbn-eslint-import-resolver-kibana/import_resolver_kibana.js
+++ b/packages/kbn-eslint-import-resolver-kibana/import_resolver_kibana.js
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
-const { join, dirname, extname } = require('path');
+const { join, dirname, extname, resolve } = require('path');
+const { readdirSync } = require('fs');
 
 const webpackResolver = require('eslint-import-resolver-webpack');
 const nodeResolver = require('eslint-import-resolver-node');
@@ -32,6 +33,11 @@ const {
   resolveWebpackAlias,
 } = require('./lib');
 
+const REPO_ROOT = resolve(__dirname, '..', '..');
+const ROOT_DIRECTORIES = readdirSync(REPO_ROOT, { withFileTypes: true })
+  .filter(file => file.isDirectory())
+  .map(file => file.name);
+
 // cache context, it shouldn't change
 let context;
 function initContext(file, config) {
@@ -69,6 +75,14 @@ function tryNodeResolver(importRequest, file, config) {
 exports.resolve = function resolveKibanaPath(importRequest, file, config) {
   config = config || {};
 
+  const rootImport = ROOT_DIRECTORIES.find(
+    dirName => importRequest === dirName || importRequest.startsWith(`${dirName}/`)
+  );
+  if (rootImport) {
+    const path = resolve(REPO_ROOT, importRequest);
+    return tryNodeResolver(path, file, config);
+  }
+
   if (config.forceNode) {
     return tryNodeResolver(importRequest, file, config);
   }
diff --git a/src/dev/build/tasks/transpile_babel_task.js b/src/dev/build/tasks/transpile_babel_task.js
index c6d762be9d732e..266d9635c27db8 100644
--- a/src/dev/build/tasks/transpile_babel_task.js
+++ b/src/dev/build/tasks/transpile_babel_task.js
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ import { createPromiseFromStreams } from '../../../legacy/utils';
 const transpileWithBabel = async (srcGlobs, build, presets) => {
   const buildRoot = build.resolvePath();
 
+  //console.log('buildRoot', buildRoot);
+
+  //console.log('transpileWithBabel presets', presets);
+
   await createPromiseFromStreams([
     vfs.src(
       srcGlobs.concat([
@@ -52,6 +56,8 @@ export const TranspileBabelTask = {
   description: 'Transpiling sources with babel',
 
   async run(config, log, build) {
+    const rootPath = build.resolvePath();
+
     // Transpile server code
     await transpileWithBabel(
       [
@@ -60,7 +66,7 @@ export const TranspileBabelTask = {
       ],
       build,
       [
-        require.resolve('@kbn/babel-preset/node_preset')
+        [require.resolve('@kbn/babel-preset/node_preset'), { rootPath }]
       ]
     );
 
diff --git a/src/legacy/server/kbn_server.js b/src/legacy/server/kbn_server.js
index 779fd183ab593e..5df3998bede097 100644
--- a/src/legacy/server/kbn_server.js
+++ b/src/legacy/server/kbn_server.js
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import { constant, once, compact, flatten } from 'lodash';
 
 import { isWorker } from 'cluster';
 import { fromRoot, pkg } from '../utils';
-import { Config } from './config';
+import { Config } from 'src/legacy/server/config';
 import loggingConfiguration from './logging/configuration';
 import configSetupMixin from './config/setup';
 import httpMixin from './http';
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 4cb975f6b4669f..0457d3286ea4dc 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -6457,6 +6457,17 @@ babel-plugin-mock-imports@1.0.1:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/babel-plugin-mock-imports/-/babel-plugin-mock-imports-1.0.1.tgz#1476ed4de911347d344fc81caab4beced80804b1"
   integrity sha512-Nu4unCGKeqOfLlfnLPnv/pEHancdAGTqFqyArZ27gsKIiKxeZvMr87IHB8BxhMu3Bfc8fA8bx7hWt32aZbEwpQ==
 
+babel-plugin-module-resolver@3.2.0:
+  version "3.2.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/babel-plugin-module-resolver/-/babel-plugin-module-resolver-3.2.0.tgz#ddfa5e301e3b9aa12d852a9979f18b37881ff5a7"
+  integrity sha512-tjR0GvSndzPew/Iayf4uICWZqjBwnlMWjSx6brryfQ81F9rxBVqwDJtFCV8oOs0+vJeefK9TmdZtkIFdFe1UnA==
+  dependencies:
+    find-babel-config "^1.1.0"
+    glob "^7.1.2"
+    pkg-up "^2.0.0"
+    reselect "^3.0.1"
+    resolve "^1.4.0"
+
 babel-plugin-named-asset-import@^0.3.0:
   version "0.3.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/babel-plugin-named-asset-import/-/babel-plugin-named-asset-import-0.3.1.tgz#5ec13ec446d0a1e5bb6c57a1f94c9cdedb0c50d6"
@@ -12656,6 +12667,14 @@ finalhandler@~1.1.2:
     statuses "~1.5.0"
     unpipe "~1.0.0"
 
+find-babel-config@^1.1.0:
+  version "1.2.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/find-babel-config/-/find-babel-config-1.2.0.tgz#a9b7b317eb5b9860cda9d54740a8c8337a2283a2"
+  integrity sha512-jB2CHJeqy6a820ssiqwrKMeyC6nNdmrcgkKWJWmpoxpE8RKciYJXCcXRq1h2AzCo5I5BJeN2tkGEO3hLTuePRA==
+  dependencies:
+    json5 "^0.5.1"
+    path-exists "^3.0.0"
+
 find-cache-dir@^2.0.0:
   version "2.0.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/find-cache-dir/-/find-cache-dir-2.0.0.tgz#4c1faed59f45184530fb9d7fa123a4d04a98472d"
@@ -17414,7 +17433,7 @@ json3@3.3.2, json3@^3.3.2:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/json3/-/json3-3.3.2.tgz#3c0434743df93e2f5c42aee7b19bcb483575f4e1"
   integrity sha1-PAQ0dD35Pi9cQq7nsZvLSDV19OE=
 
-json5@^0.5.0:
+json5@^0.5.0, json5@^0.5.1:
   version "0.5.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/json5/-/json5-0.5.1.tgz#1eade7acc012034ad84e2396767ead9fa5495821"
   integrity sha1-Hq3nrMASA0rYTiOWdn6tn6VJWCE=
@@ -24568,6 +24587,13 @@ resolve@^1.11.1:
   dependencies:
     path-parse "^1.0.6"
 
+resolve@^1.4.0:
+  version "1.12.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/resolve/-/resolve-1.12.0.tgz#3fc644a35c84a48554609ff26ec52b66fa577df6"
+  integrity sha512-B/dOmuoAik5bKcD6s6nXDCjzUKnaDvdkRyAk6rsmsKLipWj4797iothd7jmmUhWTfinVMU+wc56rYKsit2Qy4w==
+  dependencies:
+    path-parse "^1.0.6"
+
 resolve@^1.5.0, resolve@^1.7.1:
   version "1.7.1"
   resolved "https://registry.npmjs.org/resolve/-/resolve-1.7.1.tgz#aadd656374fd298aee895bc026b8297418677fd3"