Vite with TypeScript - Robin Wieruch

A brief walkthrough on how to upgrade Vite from JavaScript to TypeScript. The tutorial assumes that you have already created a React project with Vite in JavaScript. To use TypeScript in React (with Vite), install TypeScript and its dependencies into your application using the command line:

text

npm install typescript @types/react @types/react-dom --save-dev
npm install @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin --save-dev
npm install @typescript-eslint/parser --save-dev

Add three TypeScript configuration files; one for the browser environment, one for the Node environment, and one to merge both configurations:

text

touch tsconfig.json tsconfig.app.json tsconfig.node.json

In the TypeScript file for the browser environment (tsconfig.app.json) include the following configuration:

javascript

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "tsBuildInfoFile": "./node_modules/.tmp/tsconfig.app.tsbuildinfo",
    "target": "ES2020",
    "useDefineForClassFields": true,
    "lib": ["ES2020", "DOM", "DOM.Iterable"],
    "module": "ESNext",
    "skipLibCheck": true,

    /* Bundler mode */
    "moduleResolution": "bundler",
    "allowImportingTsExtensions": true,
    "isolatedModules": true,
    "moduleDetection": "force",
    "noEmit": true,
    "jsx": "react-jsx",

    /* Linting */
    "strict": true,
    "noUnusedLocals": true,
    "noUnusedParameters": true,
    "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
    "noUncheckedSideEffectImports": true
  },
  "include": ["src"]
}

Then In the TypeScript file for the Node environment (tsconfig.node.json) include some more configuration:

javascript

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "tsBuildInfoFile": "./node_modules/.tmp/tsconfig.node.tsbuildinfo",
    "target": "ES2022",
    "lib": ["ES2023"],
    "module": "ESNext",
    "skipLibCheck": true,

    /* Bundler mode */
    "moduleResolution": "bundler",
    "allowImportingTsExtensions": true,
    "isolatedModules": true,
    "moduleDetection": "force",
    "noEmit": true,

    /* Linting */
    "strict": true,
    "noUnusedLocals": true,
    "noUnusedParameters": true,
    "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
    "noUncheckedSideEffectImports": true
  },
  "include": ["vite.config.ts"]
}

Finally merge both configurations into the main TypeScript configuration file:

javascript

{
  "files": [],
  "references": [
    { "path": "./tsconfig.app.json" },
    { "path": "./tsconfig.node.json" }
  ]
}

Next, rename all JavaScript files (.jsx) to TypeScript files (.tsx).

text

mv src/main.jsx src/main.tsx
mv src/App.jsx src/App.tsx

And in your index.html file, reference the new TypeScript file instead of a JavaScript file:

html

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/vite.svg" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <title>Vite + React + TS</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="root"></div>
    <script type="module" src="/src/main.tsx"></script>
  </body>
</html>

You may also need a new vite-env.d.ts file in your project’s root with the following content:

/ <reference types="vite/client" />

/// <reference types="vite/client" />

You may also need to adjust your eslint.config.js file to include TypeScript:

javascript

import js from '@eslint/js';
import globals from 'globals';
import reactHooks from 'eslint-plugin-react-hooks';
import reactRefresh from 'eslint-plugin-react-refresh';
import tseslint from 'typescript-eslint';

export default tseslint.config(
  { ignores: ['dist'] },
  {
    extends: [
      js.configs.recommended,
      ...tseslint.configs.recommended,
    ],
    files: ['**/`.{ts,tsx}`'],
    languageOptions: {
      ecmaVersion: 2020,
      globals: globals.browser,
    },
    plugins: {
      'react-hooks': reactHooks,
      'react-refresh': reactRefresh,
    },
    rules: {
      ...reactHooks.configs.recommended.rules,
      'react/prop-types': 'off',
      'react-refresh/only-export-components': [
        'warn',
        { allowConstantExport: true },
      ],
    },
  }
);

Optionally if you want to resolve absolute paths from your tsconfig.json file, use the following vite-tsconfig-paths plugin:

javascript

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react';
import viteTsconfigPaths from 'vite-tsconfig-paths';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), viteTsconfigPaths()],
});

Restart your development server on the command line. You may encounter compile errors in the browser and editor/IDE. If you don’t see any errors in your editor/IDE when opening the renamed TypeScript files (e.g. src/App.tsx), try installing a TypeScript plugin for your editor or a TypeScript extension for your IDE. Usually you should see red lines under all the values where TypeScript definitions are missing. That’s it. You should have a running TypeScript in Vite project now.

Never Miss an Article