ts-graphql

A TypeScript library for building GraphQL APIs efficiently with type safe decorators.

Project goals:

As close to 100% type safety between GraphQL schema and code as possible; if it compiles, there shouldn't be runtime type errors
Single source of truth for both schema types and TS types
Lightweight wrapper around graphql-js - stay flexible and easy to comprehend

Installation
Usage
Why?
Similar Libraries
Caveats

Installation

yarn add ts-graphql
# or
npm i ts-graphql

Usage

This guide assumes familiarity with GraphQL.

To quickly try out the library, you can clone it and run the examples. E.g. npx ts-node examples/interface/index.ts

Patterns

The goal is to keep this simple and unopinionated. Most decorators/functions for creating types accept all the same options as their counterparts in graphql-js, but with a differently typed type option. For specifics, see the type definitions.

The only special patterns needed are:

1:1 mapping between GraphQL types and TS types
GraphQL type sources must be classes
For it to be typed, Context has to be a class (see context)

Standard Scalars

TS GraphQL provides wrapped versions of all the built-in scalars:

import {
  TSGraphQLBoolean, 
  TSGraphQLFloat, 
  TSGraphQLID, 
  TSGraphQLInt, 
  TSGraphQLString,
} from 'ts-graphql';

Object Types

Object types use the decorators ObjectType and Field. You can also define fields separately from the source class, see Modular Fields.

For Field, InputField, and Arg, you can leave out the type option for properties explicitly typed as string, number, or boolean. For methods and other types it is required (this is enforced with TS types). It is best to explicitly set the type though - see implicit type caveat

The Field decorator can be applied to a property or a method. The method takes parameters args, context and info. source is left out as it is available as this.

import {
  ObjectType,
  Field,
  TSGraphQLInt,
  TSGraphQLString,
} from 'ts-graphql';
 
@ObjectType()
class Vehicle {
  @Field({ description: 'Make of the vehicle' })
  make: string;
  
  @Field({ description: 'Model of the vehicle' })
  model: string;
  
  @Field({
    type: () => TSGraphQLInt,
    description: 'Year the vehicle was produced'
  })
  year: number;
  
  @Field({ type: () => TSGraphQLString })
  title() {
    return `${this.year} ${this.make} ${this.model}`;
  }
  
  //...
}

Input Object Types

Input objects have different decorators from output objects: InputObjectType and InputField.

import {
  InputObjectType,
  InputField,
  TSGraphQLID,
} from 'ts-graphql';
 
@InputObjectType()
class ServiceRequestInput {
  @InputField({ type: () => TSGraphQLID })
  vehicleID!: string | number;
  
  // You can use property initializers to specify the default value
  @InputField()
  description: string = '';
 
  // Or the config option defaultValue
  @InputField({ 
    type: () => TSGraphQLInt,
    defaultValue: 55, 
  })
  code!: number;
}

Args

Args have the same config options and behavior as input object types. Arg and input object type classes will be instantiated, so if you want to you can add methods, getters/setters, etc.

import {
  Args,
  Arg,
  ObjectType,
  Field,
} from 'ts-graphql';
 
@Args()
class ServiceRequestArgs {
  @Arg({ type: () => ServiceRequestInput })
  input!: ServiceRequestInput;
}
 
// ...
 
// Usage
 
@ObjectType()
class Mutation {
  @Field({ type: () => ServiceRequestPayload, args: ServiceRequestArgs })
  requestService(args, context) {
    // args instanceof ServiceRequestArgs === true
    const { input } = args;
    // input instanceof ServiceRequestInput === true
    const { vehicleID } = input;
    // ...
  }
}

Nullable and Lists

Fields/args are non null by default as that aligns with TypeScript, unlike graphql-js where everything is nullable by default. To make a field nullable, call nullable with the type, for lists, use list:

import { 
  nullable,
  list,
  //...
} from 'ts-graphql';
 
@Field({ type: () => nullable(TSGraphQLString) })
nullableString!: string | null;
 
@Field({ type: () => list(TSGraphQLInt) })
integerList!: number[];
 
@Field({ type: () => nullable(list(nullable(Foo))) })
maybeListOfMaybeFoo: Array<Foo | null> | null;

Separate functions were necessary for the types to be correct when wrapping input object types - use nullableInput and listInput instead of nullable/list.

For example, with an input object type UserInput:

UserInput = nullableInput(UserInput)
[UserInput!]! = listInput(UserInput)
[UserInput!] = nullable(listInput(UserInput))
[UserInput]! = list(nullableInput(UserInput))
[UserInput] = nullable(list(nullableInput(UserInput)))

Enums

You can use TS enums in your code, and create a type for TS GraphQL to use.

Note: For 100% type safety, use string enums. number is assignable to numeric enums (explained in this issue)

import { enumType, EnumTypeCase, Field } from 'ts-graphql';
 
enum Shape {
  Square,
  Circle,
  Triangle,
}
 
// In schema will be: Square, Circle, Triangle
const ShapeType = enumType(Shape); 
// Or if you want constant case in schema (SQUARE, CIRCLE, TRIANGLE)
const ShapeType = enumType(Shape, { 
  changeCase: EnumTypeCase.Constant,
});
 
// In an object type...
@Field({ type: () => ShapeType })
shape() {
  return Shape.Circle;
}

You can set description and deprecationReason for enum values with additional:

const ShapeType = enumType(Shape, {
  additional: {
    Square: { description: '4 sides, all of equal length' },
  },
});

Interfaces

Interfaces are created with the InterfaceType decorator, and implemented with the Implements decorator. Multiple inheritance is supported.

TypeScript interfaces weren't used as they don't support decorators

import { 
  InterfaceType,
  Implements,
  ObjectType,
  Field,
  TSGraphQLString,
} from 'ts-graphql';
 
@InterfaceType()
abstract class Node {
  @Field({ type: () => TSGraphQLString })
  id!: string;
}
 
@InterfaceType()
abstract class Event {
  @Field({ type: () => TSGraphQLString })
  name!: string
  
  @Field({ type: () => TSGraphQLString })
  date!: string;
}
 
@ObjectType()
@Implements(Node)
@Implements(Event)
class Concert {
  // fields from interfaces are inherited and enforced by typings,
  // don't need to use Field decorators again
  name() {
    return 'Foo';
  }
  
  id() {
    return 'abcd'
  }
  
  date() {
    return new Date().toISOString();
  }
}

Union Types

Union types are a little verbose, but there isn't really a way around it:

import {
  ObjectType,
  Field,
  unionType,
} from 'ts-graphql';
 
@ObjectType()
class A {
  @Field()
  a!: string;
}
 
@ObjectType()
class B {
  @Field()
  b!: string;
}
 
const AOrB = unionType<A | B>({
  name: 'AOrB',
  types: [A, B],
});

Root Types

Query/Mutation

There aren't any special functions for the query and mutation types, they are just object types.

However, if you create them as classes, type safety is a little off as you won't have access to instances of those classes - resolver methods will be bound to whatever the root value is.

The best thing to do is use modular fields with the source set to the type of your root value (if undefined, can leave it out) and then use buildFields to create a GraphQLObjectType:

import { GraphQLObjectType } from 'graphql';
import { buildFields } from 'ts-graphql';
import fooQueryFields from './foo';
import barQueryFields from './bar';
// ...
 
const Query = new GraphQLObjectType({
  name: 'Query',
  fields: () => buildFields([
    fooQueryFields,
    barQueryFields,
  ]),
});

Subscription

There are functions subscriptionFields/buildSubscriptionFields that are similar to fields/buildFields shown in modular fields.

Your subscribe function must return an AsyncIterable. You can either have subscribe directly yield the field value, or use resolve to transform or perform further actions with the yielded value.

See the subscription example for a complete example.

import { TSGraphQLInt, subscriptionFields, buildSubscriptionFields } from 'ts-graphql';
import { GraphQLObjectType } from 'graphql'; 
 
const subFields = subscriptionFields({}, (field) => ({
  withResolve: field(
    { type: () => TSGraphQLInt },
    async function* () {
      yield 'foo';
    },
    (value) => value.length,
  ),
  onlySubscribe: field(
    { type: () => TSGraphQLInt },
    async function* () {
      yield 42;
    }, 
  ),
}));
 
const subscription = new GraphQLObjectType({
  name: 'Subscription',
  fields: buildSubscriptionFields(subFields),
});

Schema

ts-graphql doesn't currently provide its own way of building a schema. What it provides are functions for generating types that the GraphQLSchema constructor can accept:

import { buildObjectType, buildNamedTypes } from 'ts-graphql';
import { GraphQLSchema } from 'graphql'
// ...
 
const schema = new GraphQLSchema({
  query: buildObjectType(Query), // or if you followed whats above, just `Query`
  mutation: buildObjectType(Mutation),
  types: buildNamedTypes([
    Foo,
    Bar,
  ]),
});

Context

For context to be type checked, it must be an instance of a class.

class Context {
  constructor (public viewerId: string) {}
}

For resolver methods, you can pass the context option:

@ObjectType()
class Foo { 
  @Field({
    type: () => TSGraphQLString ,
    context: Context,
  })
  bar(args: {}, context: Context) {
    return 'foobar';
  }
}

However, you'll most likely want your context type to be the same in every resolver. You can create a field decorator bound to your context type and use that instead of Field from ts-graphql:

// Field.ts
import Context from './Context';
import { fieldDecoratorForContext } from 'ts-graphql';
 
export default fieldDecoratorForContext(Context);
 
// Elsewhere
import Field from './Field';
// And use normally

For modular fields, pass the context option to fields and it will be typed in your resolvers. Note that all fields you pass to an ObjectType must have the same Context type.

Modular Fields

You can define fields separately from your object type source, and split them up if you want. This works well for the root types.

There are two ways:

Decorators, which are similar to the rest of the library but are more verbose
fields function, which uses plain functions and objects, but is more concise and supports type inference

Decorators

Intended to mirror the SDL extend keyword.

Extend an object type by:

Add @Extends decorator to class
Make class extend Extension
Add static methods/properties and decorate with @ExtensionField

Fields must be static because the extension classes will not be instantiated, methods will be passed an instance of the source class.

To stay unopinionated, by default the library does not automatically extend the base type when a class is imported - they must be passed in to the config of the base type. However, you can use getExtensions to accomplish this:

// Foo.ts
import { ObjectType, getExtensions } from 'ts-graphql';
import './features/a.ts';
import './features/b.ts';
 
@ObjectType({ extensions: () => getExtensions(Foo) })
export default class Foo {
  data: string; 
  // ...
}
 
// features/a.ts
import { Extension, Extends, ExtensionField, TSGraphQLString } from 'ts-graphql';
import Foo from '../Foo.ts';
 
@Extends(Foo)
class FooFieldsA extends Extension<Foo> {
  @ExtensionField({ type: () => TSGraphQLString })
  static data(source: Foo) {
    return source.data;
  }
}
 
// features/b.ts
import { Extension, Extends, ExtensionField, TSGraphQLInt } from 'ts-graphql';
import Foo from '../Foo.ts';
 
@Extends(Foo)
class FooFieldsB extends Extension<Foo> {
  @ExtensionField({ type: () => TSGraphQLInt })
  static dataLength(source: Foo) {
    return source.data.length;
  }
}

The context type is the second type variable of Extension:

class FooFieldsA extends Extension<Foo, Context> {

`fields`

The other option is the fields function:

// Foo.ts
import { ObjectType } from 'ts-graphql';
import { fooFieldsA } from './features/a.ts'
import { fooFieldsB } from './features/b.ts'
 
@ObjectType({
  fields: () => [fooFieldsA, fooFieldsB],
})
export default class Foo {
  data: string; 
  // ...
}
 
// features/a.ts
import { fields, TSGraphQLString } from 'ts-graphql';
import Foo from '../Foo.ts';
 
export const fooFieldsA = fields({ source: Foo }, (field) => ({
  data: field(
    { type: () => TSGraphQLString },
    (source) => source.data,
  ),
}));
 
// features/b.ts
import { fields, TSGraphQLInt } from 'ts-graphql';
import Foo from '../Foo.ts';
 
export const fooFieldsB = fields({ source: Foo }, (field) => ({
  dataLength: field(
    { type: () => TSGraphQLInt },
    (source) => source.data.length,
  ),
}));

To use context pass the class to fields:

fields({ source: Foo, context: Context }, (field) => ({

Custom Scalars

For your own scalars you can use scalarType:

import { scalarType } from 'ts-graphql';
 
// ...
 
const Date = scalarType({
  name: 'Date',
  description: 'ISO-8601 string',
  serialize,
  parseValue,
  parseLiteral,
});

Or, you can wrap custom scalars, providing the TS type to associate:

import { wrapScalar } from 'ts-graphql';
import SomeScalar from 'some-scalar';
 
const SomeScalarTyped = wrapScalar<SomeType>(SomeScalar);

Why?

This library is the result of experiencing many frustrations while working with GraphQL and TypeScript, whether that was programmatically with graphql-js, or writing schemas in the SDL and using something like graphql-cli to generate types from them.

The main issues:

Either way, you have to write types twice. Even worse, since the SDL is either strings or text files, you can't use features of the language to DRY up common args and types.
There is a disconnect between return values of resolvers and the field types of the schema. For example, the resolver can return null, but the schema has it marked as non null. This is a runtime error, and one that can't be caught immediately, so unless you have every single field tested with every possible condition, the error won't be thrown until some point later in the QA cycle, potentially even after deployment.

This library solves both of those:

Every component of the schema has a single source of truth and support using extends to inherit fields/args.
Type mismatch errors for all schema components are enforced by TS types and shown at compile time

Similar Libraries

There are some good libraries that are very similar, however, I was looking for something that aligned with the goals outlined at the top and there didn't seem to be a good path towards that for them.

Caveats

There are a few things that can't be caught at compile time:

Nullable Input Fields

Nullable fields on input types don't enforce that the TS property is nullable. This is because T is assignable to T | null, which works fine for output types but not so much for input. There might be a way to type this correctly but haven't figured it out yet.

Input/Output type checking

Input types used where an output type is expected and vice versa won't show an error at compile time, they will immediately throw a runtime error though.

Implicit Types

Leaving out the field type for properties implicitly typed as primitives won't throw a compile time error, but will immediately throw at runtime. For example:

@Field()
shape: 'circle' | 'square';
 
@Field()
color = 'red';

Primitive Union Types

Similar to the above case: due to recent TS updates, leaving out the field type for primitive unions now won't throw at compile time, but will at runtime:

@Field()
foo: string | number;

Matching object types

Because TS is "duck-typed", if you manage to have two classes used for object types that have the exact same fields, returning the wrong class can't be caught at build time. E.g:

@ObjectType()
class A { 
  @Field()
  foo!: string; 
}
 
@ObjectType()
class B {
  @Field()
  foo!: string
}
 
@ObjectType()
class C {
  @Field({ type: () => A })
  a() {
    return new B();
  }
}

ts-graphql

ts-graphql

Table of Contents

Installation

Usage

Patterns

Standard Scalars

Object Types

Input Object Types

Args

Nullable and Lists

Enums

Interfaces

Union Types

Root Types

Query/Mutation

Subscription

Schema

Context

Modular Fields

Decorators

fields

Custom Scalars

Why?

Similar Libraries

Caveats

Nullable Input Fields

Input/Output type checking

Implicit Types

Primitive Union Types

Matching object types

Readme

Keywords

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