Skip to main content

@typescript-eslint/typescript-estree

The underlying code used by @typescript-eslint/parser that converts TypeScript source code into an ESTree-compatible form. ✨

This parser is designed to be generic and robust. It can be used to power any use-case which requires taking TypeScript source code and producing an ESTree-compatible AST.

It is most known for use within these hyper-popular open-source projects to power their TypeScript support:

  • ESLint, the pluggable linting utility for JavaScript and JSX
  • Prettier, an opinionated code formatter

It works by:

  1. Invoking the TypeScript compiler on the given source code in order to produce a TypeScript AST
  2. Converting that TypeScript AST into an ESTree AST

API​

Parsing​

parse(code, options)​

Parses the given string of code with the options provided and returns an ESTree-compatible AST.

interface ParseOptions {
  /**
   * Prevents the parser from throwing an error if it receives an invalid AST from TypeScript.
   * This case only usually occurs when attempting to lint invalid code.
   */
  allowInvalidAST?: boolean;

  /**
   * create a top-level comments array containing all comments
   */
  comment?: boolean;

  /**
   * Whether deprecated AST properties should skip calling console.warn on accesses.
   */
  suppressDeprecatedPropertyWarnings?: boolean;

  /**
   * An array of modules to turn explicit debugging on for.
   * - 'typescript-eslint' is the same as setting the env var `DEBUG=typescript-eslint:*`
   * - 'eslint' is the same as setting the env var `DEBUG=eslint:*`
   * - 'typescript' is the same as setting `extendedDiagnostics: true` in your tsconfig compilerOptions
   *
   * For convenience, also supports a boolean:
   * - true === ['typescript-eslint']
   * - false === []
   */
  debugLevel?: boolean | ('typescript-eslint' | 'eslint' | 'typescript')[];

  /**
   * Cause the parser to error if it encounters an unknown AST node type (useful for testing).
   * This case only usually occurs when TypeScript releases new features.
   */
  errorOnUnknownASTType?: boolean;

  /**
   * Absolute (or relative to `cwd`) path to the file being parsed.
   */
  filePath?: string;

  /**
   * If you are using TypeScript version >=5.3 then this option can be used as a performance optimization.
   *
   * The valid values for this rule are:
   * - `'all'` - parse all JSDoc comments, always.
   * - `'none'` - parse no JSDoc comments, ever.
   * - `'type-info'` - parse just JSDoc comments that are required to provide correct type-info. TS will always parse JSDoc in non-TS files, but never in TS files.
   *
   * If you do not rely on JSDoc tags from the TypeScript AST, then you can safely set this to `'none'` to improve performance.
   */
  jsDocParsingMode?: JSDocParsingMode;

  /**
   * Enable parsing of JSX.
   * For more details, see https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/jsx.html
   *
   * NOTE: this setting does not effect known file types (.js, .cjs, .mjs, .jsx, .ts, .mts, .cts, .tsx, .json) because the
   * TypeScript compiler has its own internal handling for known file extensions.
   *
   * For the exact behavior, see https://github.com/typescript-eslint/typescript-eslint/tree/main/packages/parser#parseroptionsecmafeaturesjsx
   */
  jsx?: boolean;

  /**
   * Controls whether the `loc` information to each node.
   * The `loc` property is an object which contains the exact line/column the node starts/ends on.
   * This is similar to the `range` property, except it is line/column relative.
   */
  loc?: boolean;

  /*
   * Allows overriding of function used for logging.
   * When value is `false`, no logging will occur.
   * When value is not provided, `console.log()` will be used.
   */
  loggerFn?: Function | false;

  /**
   * Controls whether the `range` property is included on AST nodes.
   * The `range` property is a [number, number] which indicates the start/end index of the node in the file contents.
   * This is similar to the `loc` property, except this is the absolute index.
   */
  range?: boolean;

  /**
   * Set to true to create a top-level array containing all tokens from the file.
   */
  tokens?: boolean;
}

const PARSE_DEFAULT_OPTIONS: ParseOptions = {
  comment: false,
  filePath: 'estree.ts', // or 'estree.tsx', if you pass jsx: true
  jsDocParsingMode: 'all',
  jsx: false,
  loc: false,
  loggerFn: undefined,
  range: false,
  tokens: false,
};

declare function parse(
  code: string,
  options: ParseOptions = PARSE_DEFAULT_OPTIONS,
): TSESTree.Program;

Example usage:

import { parse } from '@typescript-eslint/typescript-estree';

const code = `const hello: string = 'world';`;
const ast = parse(code, {
  loc: true,
  range: true,
});

parseAndGenerateServices(code, options)​

Parses the given string of code with the options provided and returns an ESTree-compatible AST. Accepts additional options which can be used to generate type information along with the AST.

interface ParseAndGenerateServicesOptions extends ParseOptions {
  /**
   * Causes the parser to error if the TypeScript compiler returns any unexpected syntax/semantic errors.
   */
  errorOnTypeScriptSyntacticAndSemanticIssues?: boolean;

  /**
   * ***EXPERIMENTAL FLAG*** - Use this at your own risk.
   *
   * Whether to create a shared TypeScript server to power program creation.
   *
   * @see https://github.com/typescript-eslint/typescript-eslint/issues/6575
   */
  EXPERIMENTAL_useProjectService?: boolean | ProjectServiceOptions;

  /**
   * ***EXPERIMENTAL FLAG*** - Use this at your own risk.
   *
   * Causes TS to use the source files for referenced projects instead of the compiled .d.ts files.
   * This feature is not yet optimized, and is likely to cause OOMs for medium to large projects.
   *
   * This flag REQUIRES at least TS v3.9, otherwise it does nothing.
   *
   * @see https://github.com/typescript-eslint/typescript-eslint/issues/2094
   */
  EXPERIMENTAL_useSourceOfProjectReferenceRedirect?: boolean;

  /**
   * When `project` is provided, this controls the non-standard file extensions which will be parsed.
   * It accepts an array of file extensions, each preceded by a `.`.
   */
  extraFileExtensions?: string[];

  /**
   * Absolute (or relative to `tsconfigRootDir`) path to the file being parsed.
   * When `project` is provided, this is required, as it is used to fetch the file from the TypeScript compiler's cache.
   */
  filePath?: string;

  /**
   * Allows the user to control whether or not two-way AST node maps are preserved
   * during the AST conversion process.
   *
   * By default: the AST node maps are NOT preserved, unless `project` has been specified,
   * in which case the maps are made available on the returned `parserServices`.
   *
   * NOTE: If `preserveNodeMaps` is explicitly set by the user, it will be respected,
   * regardless of whether or not `project` is in use.
   */
  preserveNodeMaps?: boolean;

  /**
   * Absolute (or relative to `tsconfigRootDir`) paths to the tsconfig(s),
   * or `true` to find the nearest tsconfig.json to the file.
   * If this is provided, type information will be returned.
   *
   * If set to `false`, `null`, or `undefined`, type information will not be returned.
   */
  project?: string[] | string | boolean | null;

  /**
   * If you provide a glob (or globs) to the project option, you can use this option to ignore certain folders from
   * being matched by the globs.
   * This accepts an array of globs to ignore.
   *
   * By default, this is set to ["/node_modules/"]
   */
  projectFolderIgnoreList?: string[];

  /**
   * The absolute path to the root directory for all provided `project`s.
   */
  tsconfigRootDir?: string;

  /**
   * An array of one or more instances of TypeScript Program objects to be used for type information.
   * This overrides any program or programs that would have been computed from the `project` option.
   * All linted files must be part of the provided program(s).
   */
  programs?: Program[];

  /**
   * @deprecated - this flag will be removed in the next major.
   * Do not rely on the behavior provided by this flag.
   */
  DEPRECATED__createDefaultProgram?: boolean;

  /**
   * ESLint (and therefore typescript-eslint) is used in both "single run"/one-time contexts,
   * such as an ESLint CLI invocation, and long-running sessions (such as continuous feedback
   * on a file in an IDE).
   *
   * When typescript-eslint handles TypeScript Program management behind the scenes, this distinction
   * is important because there is significant overhead to managing the so called Watch Programs
   * needed for the long-running use-case.
   *
   * When allowAutomaticSingleRunInference is enabled, we will use common heuristics to infer
   * whether or not ESLint is being used as part of a single run.
   *
   * This setting's default value can be specified by setting a `TSESTREE_SINGLE_RUN`
   * environment variable to `"false"` or `"true"`.
   */
  allowAutomaticSingleRunInference?: boolean;

  /**
   * Granular control of the expiry lifetime of our internal caches.
   * You can specify the number of seconds as an integer number, or the string
   * 'Infinity' if you never want the cache to expire.
   *
   * By default cache entries will be evicted after 30 seconds, or will persist
   * indefinitely if `allowAutomaticSingleRunInference = true` AND the parser
   * infers that it is a single run.
   */
  cacheLifetime?: {
    /**
     * Glob resolution for `parserOptions.project` values.
     */
    glob?: number | 'Infinity';
  };
}

/**
 * Granular options to configure the project service.
 */
interface ProjectServiceOptions {
  /**
   * Globs of files to allow running with the default project compiler options.
   */
  allowDefaultProjectForFiles?: string[];

  /**
   * Path to a TSConfig to use instead of TypeScript's default project configuration.
   */
  defaultProject?: string;

  /**
   * The maximum number of files {@link allowDefaultProjectForFiles} may match.
   * Each file match slows down linting, so if you do need to use this, please
   * file an informative issue on typescript-eslint explaining why - so we can
   * help you avoid using it!
   * @default 8
   */
  maximumDefaultProjectFileMatchCount_THIS_WILL_SLOW_DOWN_LINTING?: number;
}

interface ParserServices {
  program: ts.Program;
  esTreeNodeToTSNodeMap: WeakMap<TSESTree.Node, ts.Node | ts.Token>;
  tsNodeToESTreeNodeMap: WeakMap<ts.Node | ts.Token, TSESTree.Node>;
}

interface ParseAndGenerateServicesResult<T extends TSESTreeOptions> {
  ast: TSESTree.Program;
  services: ParserServices;
}

const PARSE_AND_GENERATE_SERVICES_DEFAULT_OPTIONS: ParseOptions = {
  ...PARSE_DEFAULT_OPTIONS,
  errorOnTypeScriptSyntacticAndSemanticIssues: false,
  extraFileExtensions: [],
  preserveNodeMaps: false, // or true, if you do not set this, but pass `project`
  project: undefined,
  projectFolderIgnoreList: ['/node_modules/'],
  tsconfigRootDir: process.cwd(),
};

declare function parseAndGenerateServices(
  code: string,
  options: ParseOptions = PARSE_DEFAULT_OPTIONS,
): ParseAndGenerateServicesResult;

Example usage:

import { parseAndGenerateServices } from '@typescript-eslint/typescript-estree';

const code = `const hello: string = 'world';`;
const { ast, services } = parseAndGenerateServices(code, {
  filePath: '/some/path/to/file/foo.ts',
  loc: true,
  project: './tsconfig.json',
  range: true,
});

TSESTree, AST_NODE_TYPES and AST_TOKEN_TYPES​

Types for the AST produced by the parse functions.

  • TSESTree is a namespace which contains object types representing all of the AST Nodes produced by the parser.
  • AST_NODE_TYPES is an enum which provides the values for every single AST node's type property.
  • AST_TOKEN_TYPES is an enum which provides the values for every single AST token's type property.

Utilities​

createProgram(configFile, projectDirectory)​

This serves as a utility method for users of the ParseOptions.programs feature to create a TypeScript program instance from a config file.

declare function createProgram(
  configFile: string,
  projectDirectory: string = process.cwd(),
): import('typescript').Program;

Example usage:

const tsESTree = require('@typescript-eslint/typescript-estree');

const program = tsESTree.createProgram('tsconfig.json');
const code = `const hello: string = 'world';`;
const { ast, services } = parseAndGenerateServices(code, {
  filePath: '/some/path/to/file/foo.ts',
  loc: true,
  program,
  range: true,
});

Debugging​

If you encounter a bug with the parser that you want to investigate, you can turn on the debug logging via setting the environment variable: DEBUG=typescript-eslint:*. I.e. in this repo you can run: DEBUG=typescript-eslint:* yarn lint.