NRWL NX library typescript ambient declaration files

Question

I have a basic setup in my new NX workspace

/apps/my-app (node type)
/libs/some-lib (node type)

Both created with nx cli commands: i.e. nx g @nrwl/node:lib some-lib --simpleModuleName=true

For library I wanted to use ambient declaration files (.d.ts). I added one in /libs/some-lib/src/types/index.d.ts, with content:

declare type MyCustomType = any;

As I understand, this file gets processed based on /libs/some-lib/tsconfig.lib.json file, but I also added direct reference to this file in /libs/some-lib/tsconfig.json:

{
    "extends": "../../../tsconfig.base.json",
    "files": [
        "src/types/index.d.ts"
    ],
    "include": [
        "src/types/**/*.d.ts"
    ],
    "references": [
        {
            "path": "./tsconfig.lib.json"
        },
        {
            "path": "./tsconfig.spec.json"
        }
    ]
}

My IDE is happy when I'm using this file inside lib's code, for example: /libs/some-lib/src/lib/file.ts

export const x: MyCustomType = 1;

But if I want to import this variable into my-app and I run it (nx serve my-app),

import { x } from '@my-workspace/some-lib';

I get an error from the compiler:

ERROR in libs/some-lib/src/lib/file.ts
TS2304: Cannot find name "MyCustomType".

So my question is, is there a way to use ambient declaration files inside libraries and not to get errors when running application that imports abstractions from this library?

I could create in the root folder shared types: *types/myCustomType.d.ts" and then include it in the application's and library's tsconfigs in files property, but I wan't to avoid it and keep types close to the code.

Another solution that works, but is ugly as hell is to add additional reference to the library in my-app's tsconfig file:

{
    "path": "../../libs/some-lib/tsconfig.json"
}

Result /apps/my-app/tsconfig.json:

{
      "extends": "../../tsconfig.base.json",
      "files": [],
      "include": [],
      "references": [
        {
          "path": "./tsconfig.app.json"
        },
        {
          "path": "./tsconfig.spec.json"
        },
        {
          "path": "../../libs/node/schedulers/tsconfig.json"
        }
      ]
}

Or create a tsconfig.json barrel: /libs/tsconfig.json ... and just reference relevant libraries there. my-app's tsconfig file would only need to reference this single file.

NRWL NX library typescript ambient declaration files

0 Answers