typed-install

You're writing Typescript and it's time to install your favorite node module. Has this ever happened to you?

% npm i my-module @types/my-module
npm ERR! code E404
npm ERR! 404 Not Found: @types/my-module@latest

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/user/.npm/_logs/2018-03-31T23_41_37_683Z-debug.log

It's hard to know if type declarations are included with the module, shipped separately, or non-existent. Enter typed-install.

Installation and Usage

Install from npm using your favorite package manager.

% npm i -g typed-install

Run it with the typedi command, passing any number space-separated package names (this should be very familiar).

% typedi heroku-config lodash striptags
✔ Installing Packages
✔ Checking for @types
✔ Installing Available Types

The following packages were fully installed:
  * lodash
  * striptags

The following packages were installed, but lack types:
  * heroku-config

By default, typedi guesses your preferred package manager (based on a lockfile), uses npm if there's no hint, saves packages into dependencies, and @types into devDependencies.. This is configurable with the following flags:

• -d | --dev: save packages into the devDependencies
• -p | --prod: save @types into dependencies
• -m | --package-manager: one of npm, yarn, or pnpm. Specifying one of these overwrites lockfile guessing.
• -e | --exact: install with an exact type instead of a caret (^). This overwrites your config files for the tool you're using

Using --dev and --prod together will probably not do what you expect.

Exceptions

As of the release of v1.0.6, the following packages ship with a stub types file, confusing this utility:

• jest

Those are always explicitly fetched. If you know of another example (or one of the above is shipping actual types) file an issue and I'll add the exception.

Using without installing

If you have npm@5.2.0 or greater installed, you can run this via npx (more info), a tool to run CLI packages without explicitly installing them. This is great for periodic or one time use.

The previous example becomes:

% npx typed-install heroku-config lodash striptags

Similarly, if you're using yarn@2, you can use yarn dlx (see the docs).

If you're going to invoke this repeatedly or frequently, global installation is recommended.

API

The code that powers typedi can also be used via the Node.js API.

The main function takes the following options, in order:

modules (string[])

An array of npm module names

opts (object, default {})

an object with any of the following keys (see above):

• dev
• prod
• packageManager
• exact

Any keys not present default to false.

shouldSpin (boolean, default false)

Whether or not to run the fancy spinner. If you're using this in other code, this should probably be false. Also controls whether messages are logged.

const typedi = require('typed-install').default

typedi(['lodash', 'striptags'], { dev: true }).then(() => {
  console.log('all done!')
})