TypeScript setup for Meteor

help
1

I’m still trying to improve my TypeScript setup for Meteor using zodern:types, but it’s still a mystery for me when Meteor actually finds the types for a package and when not.

Until recently, it was able to resolve most of the packages, but now it does not find the definitions for meteor/react-meteor-data anymore. I have no clue what caused this. I tried to add @types/meteor manually, but this made things even worse, so I removed it.

Also just recently, Meteor stopped recognizing the transform key in a find() / findAsync, so I have to cast the results to the actual model object now.

The issue might as well be related to a major update of WebStorm.

I attached my current config. If anyone has a clue why this does not work (anymore), I’d be super thankful. Adding types manually for things like useTracker() isn’t really fun.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    /* Basic Options */
    "target": "es2018",
    "module": "esNext",
    "lib": ["esnext", "dom"],
    "allowJs": true,
    "checkJs": false,
    "jsx": "preserve",
    "incremental": true,
    "noEmit": true,

    /* Strict Type-Checking Options */
    "strict": true,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "strictNullChecks": true,

    /* Additional Checks */
    "noUnusedLocals": true,
    "noUnusedParameters": true,
    "noImplicitReturns": false,
    "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": false,

    /* Module Resolution Options */
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      /* Support absolute /imports/* with a leading '/' */
      "/*": ["*"],
      "meteor/universe-i18n": ["node_modules/@types/meteor-universe-i18n/index.d.ts"],
      /* Pull in type declarations for Meteor packages from either zodern:types or @types/meteor packages */
      "meteor/*": ["node_modules/@types/meteor/*", ".meteor/local/types/packages.d.ts"]
    },
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "types": ["node", "mocha"],
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "preserveSymlinks": true
  },
  "exclude": ["./.meteor/**", "./packages/**"],
  "include": ["./.meteor/local/types", "./**/*"]
}
1 Like
2

Known issue, I’m afraid, and so far very little appetite to fix the 5-6 issues that make typescript work out of the box for a new meteor project.
The solution is in this unmerged pr

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the hint, will try it!

4

This seems to have done the trick. And even the transform works now, amazing!

Thank you so much for your support!

One question: You removed this

node_modules/@types/meteor/

from meteor/*. So I guess the best way to resolve issues is to not reference the whole @types/meteor package folder here but instead select sub-packages, correct?

I am also wondering: Why is the official Readme referencing the @types/meteor package folder, but does not mention that one should add the package itself? Is it recommended to install it manually or not? I had issues after doing so. But now, it only worked after I did install it. Seems to confirm my assumption. If this is correct, I think the Readme should mention this as well (as a peer dependency).

5

Ah, and another question in this context: I used to get a TypeScript error when I did not import Meteor, Mongo or check, but this does not work anymore since a while (i.e. even before the change). TypeScript now recognizes these as globals. I’d rather prefer to import them manually. Is there a way to get the warnings back?

6

Now and then, I have an issue with TS in Meteor and I wish we had an easy way Maybe this feature could solve it [Feature]: Moving zodern:types to core · Issue #12509 · meteor/meteor · GitHub

Sorry for the small rant hehe

Rave you ran meteor lint(to run the type thingy) on the project?

1 Like
7

Screenshot from 2025-05-14 13-10-03
Screenshot from 2025-05-14 13-10-03764×107 20.2 KB

This feature is bad. It took me some time to see what it is. :joy:

8

Of course, zodern is not to blame for this.

I am wondering why exactly Meteor is still using its own import syntax in the first place? I know that it is due to its own package management, which has to support isomorphism as well (for mobile devices), but wouldn’t there be a way to achieve the same with another bundler nowadays?

Not a huge fan of rollup and webpack, though, as things can get pretty complicated with them as well. Vite is a bit better, I guess. Maybe it’s too hard to get to the same level of “simplicity” with one of these?

2 Likes
9

In the ideal world, you would not need to bring in the meteor types from DefinitelyTyped (node_modules/@types/meteor) but instead only use the ones made available via packages themselves and unpacked by zodern:types

example

Unfortunately, there are some remaining cases where you need to still rely on @types/meteor:

So what the example tsconfig does is to cherrypick types from the definitelytyped ones and then use ./.meteor/local/types/packages.d.ts (generated by zodern:types) for all other meteor/* packages.

1 Like