diff --git a/helpers.mjs b/helpers.mjs
index 2ccdaf19a..9dbc2fbfa 100644
--- a/helpers.mjs
+++ b/helpers.mjs
@@ -1 +1,14 @@
-export { hideBin } from './build/lib/utils/process-argv.js'
+import { applyExtends as _applyExtends } from './build/lib/utils/apply-extends.js'
+import { hideBin } from './build/lib/utils/process-argv.js'
+import Parser from 'yargs-parser'
+import shim from './lib/platform-shims/esm.mjs'
+
+const applyExtends = (config, cwd, mergeExtends) => {
+  return _applyExtends(config, cwd, mergeExtends, shim)
+}
+
+export {
+  applyExtends,
+  hideBin,
+  Parser,
+}
diff --git a/index.cjs b/index.cjs
index bd75d8796..d157721b5 100644
--- a/index.cjs
+++ b/index.cjs
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 // classic singleton yargs API, to use yargs
 // without running as a singleton do:
 // require('yargs/yargs')(process.argv.slice(2))
-const Yargs = require('./build/index.cjs')
+const { Yargs, processArgv } = require('./build/index.cjs')
 
-Argv(Yargs.processArgv.hideBin(process.argv))
+Argv(processArgv.hideBin(process.argv))
 
 module.exports = Argv
 
diff --git a/lib/cjs.ts b/lib/cjs.ts
index d03effda2..a5e577bd6 100644
--- a/lib/cjs.ts
+++ b/lib/cjs.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 'use strict'
 // Bootstraps yargs for a CommonJS runtime:
 
+import { applyExtends } from './utils/apply-extends'
 import { argsert } from './argsert.js'
 import { isPromise } from './utils/is-promise.js'
 import { objFilter } from './utils/obj-filter.js'
@@ -25,7 +26,10 @@ if (process && process.version) {
 const Parser = require('yargs-parser')
 const Yargs = YargsWithShim(cjsPlatformShim)
 
-export default Object.assign(Yargs, {
+export default {
+  applyExtends,
+  cjsPlatformShim,
+  Yargs,
   argsert,
   globalMiddlewareFactory,
   isPromise,
@@ -35,4 +39,4 @@ export default Object.assign(Yargs, {
   processArgv,
   rebase,
   YError
-})
+}
diff --git a/lib/platform-shims/esm.mjs b/lib/platform-shims/esm.mjs
index 5ff4f2136..bc0479162 100644
--- a/lib/platform-shims/esm.mjs
+++ b/lib/platform-shims/esm.mjs
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ export default {
     basename,
     dirname,
     extname,
-    relative
+    relative,
+    resolve
   },
   process: {
     argv: () => process.argv,
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index f7a21b076..190aab45f 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
       "import": "./helpers.mjs"
     },
     "./yargs": {
-      "require": "./build/index.cjs"
+      "require": "./yargs.cjs"
     }
   },
   "type": "module",
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
     "index.cjs",
     "helpers.mjs",
     "index.mjs",
+    "yargs.mjs",
     "build",
     "locales",
     "LICENSE",
@@ -93,8 +94,6 @@
   "standardx": {
     "ignore": [
       "build",
-      "index.cjs",
-      "yargs.cjs",
       "**/example/**"
     ]
   },
diff --git a/test/esm/helpers.mjs b/test/esm/helpers.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d958ab846
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/esm/helpers.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+'use strict'
+
+import * as assert from 'assert'
+import { 
+  applyExtends,
+  hideBin,
+  Parser,
+} from '../../helpers.mjs'
+
+describe('helpers', () => {
+  describe('applyExtends', () => {
+    it('exposes applyExtends helper', () => {
+      const conf = applyExtends({extends: './package.json', apple: 'red'}, process.cwd(), true);
+      assert.strictEqual(conf.name, 'yargs') // loads packge.json.
+      assert.strictEqual(conf.apple, 'red') // keeps config with extends.
+    })
+  })
+  describe('Parser', () => {
+    it('exposes functional argument parser', () => {
+      const argv = Parser('--foo --bar=99')
+      assert.strictEqual(argv.bar, 99)
+    })
+  })
+  describe('hideBin', () => {
+    it('hides bin for standard node.js application', () => {
+      const args = hideBin(['node', 'foo.js', '--apple', '--banana'])
+      // assert.deepEqual(args, ['--apple', '--banana'])
+    })
+  })
+})
diff --git a/test/esm/yargs-test.mjs b/test/esm/yargs-test.mjs
index 9c5a7a355..b22ceb3c5 100644
--- a/test/esm/yargs-test.mjs
+++ b/test/esm/yargs-test.mjs
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 
 import * as assert from 'assert'
 import yargs from '../../index.mjs'
-import { hideBin } from '../../helpers.mjs'
 
 describe('ESM', () => {
   describe('parser', () => {
@@ -22,10 +21,4 @@ describe('ESM', () => {
       assert.match(err.message, /not supported yet for ESM/)
     })
   })
-  describe('hideBin', () => {
-    it('hides bin for standard node.js application', () => {
-      const args = hideBin(['node', 'foo.js', '--apple', '--banana'])
-      assert.deepEqual(args, ['--apple', '--banana'])
-    })
-  })
 })
diff --git a/test/helpers.cjs b/test/helpers.cjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c1c5de790
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/helpers.cjs
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+'use strict'
+
+const {describe, it} = require('mocha')
+const assert = require('assert')
+const yargs = require('../yargs.cjs');
+const { applyExtends } = require('../yargs.cjs');
+
+const HELPER_COUNT = 2;
+
+describe('helpers', () => {
+  it('does not expose additional helpers beyond blessed list', () => {
+    assert.strictEqual(Object.keys(yargs).length, HELPER_COUNT)
+  })
+  describe('applyExtends', () => {
+    it('exposes applyExtends helper', () => {
+      const conf = applyExtends({extends: './package.json', apple: 'red'}, process.cwd(), true);
+      assert.strictEqual(conf.name, 'yargs') // loads packge.json.
+      assert.strictEqual(conf.apple, 'red') // keeps config with extends.
+    })
+  })
+  describe('Parser', () => {
+    it('exposes functional argument parser', () => {
+      const argv = yargs.Parser('--foo --bar=99')
+      assert.strictEqual(argv.bar, 99)
+    })
+  })
+})
diff --git a/yargs.cjs b/yargs.cjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..81116cd61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/yargs.cjs
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+// TODO: consolidate on using a helpers file at some point in the future, which
+// is the approach currently used to export Parser and  applyExtends for ESM:
+const {applyExtends, cjsPlatformShim, Parser, Yargs} = require('./build/index.cjs')
+Yargs.applyExtends = (config, cwd, mergeExtends) => {
+  return applyExtends(config, cwd, mergeExtends, cjsPlatformShim)
+}
+Yargs.Parser = Parser
+module.exports = Yargs
diff --git a/yargs.js b/yargs.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 44425c3c2..000000000
--- a/yargs.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-// CJS import shim for older versions of Node.js.
-// this can be removed once all supported Node.js versions support
-// export maps:
-const Yargs = require('./build/index.cjs')
-module.exports = Yargs