eslint-plugin-import-access

What?

This package provides a typescript-eslint rule that restricts importing variables marked as @package from a file outside the same directory. Also, this package serves as a TypeScript Language Service Plugin that prevents auto-completion of such imports.

Why?

The largest encapsulation unit available for a TypeScript project is a file. That is, variables not exported from a file is only visible to code in the same file. Once a variable is exported, it is visible from the entire project.

Sometimes this is insufficient. A rational effort for proper encapsulation may result in a large file that is hard to maintain.

This package solves this problem by providing a new directory-level layer and enabling a “package-private” export that is only visible to files in the same directory.

Installation

npm i -D eslint-plugin-import-access

Depending on how you configure ESLint, use either Flat Config or eslintrc to configure eslint-plugin-import-access.

Also, you can enable the TypeScript Language Service Plugin by adding it to the plugins array in tsconfig.json.

Flat Config

In eslint.config.js:

import typescriptEslintParser from "@typescript-eslint/parser";
import importAccess from "eslint-plugin-import-access/flat-config";

export default [
  // other settings...
  {
    // set up typescript-eslint
    languageOptions: {
      parser: typescriptEslintParser,
      parserOptions: {
        project: true,
        sourceType: "module",
      },
    },
  },
  {
    plugins: {
      "import-access": importAccess,
    },
  },
  {
    rules: {
      "import-access/jsdoc": ["error"],
    },
  },
];

Note: currently you need to import the plugin from the /flat-config subpath. In a future version, this will be simplified.

eslintrc

In .eslintrc.js:

  // set up typescript-eslint
  "parser": "@typescript-eslint/parser",
  "parserOptions": {
    "project": true,
    "sourceType": "module"
  },
  "plugins": [
    "import-access",
    // ...
  ],
  "rules": {
    "import-access/jsdoc": ["error"],
  }

TypeScript Language Service Plugin

In tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ...
    "plugins": [
      // ...
      {
        "name": "eslint-plugin-import-access"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Note: to enable TypeScript language service plugins installed locally, you must use TypeScript in node_modules, not the one bundled with VSCode.

Example

// ----- sub/foo.ts -----

/**
 * @package
 */
export const fooPackageVariable = "I am package-private export";

// ----- sub/bar.ts -----
// This is correct because foo.ts is in the same directory
import { fooPackageVariable } from "./foo";

// ----- baz.ts -----
// This is INCORRECT because package-private exports
// cannot be imported from outside the sub directory
import { fooPackageVariable } from "./sub/foo";