TypeScript
Example: TypeScript and Schema
Convex provides end-to-end type support when Convex functions are written in TypeScript.
You can gradually add TypeScript to a Convex project: the following steps provide progressively better type support. For the best support you'll want to complete them all.
Writing Convex functions in TypeScript
The first step to improving type support in a Convex project is to writing your
Convex functions in TypeScript. TypeScript inference is so good that the
difference between writing a Convex function in JavaScript and TypeScript may be
very small! Start by renaming the convex module from e.g. addChannel.js
to
addChannel.ts
and add annotations for function parameters.
import { mutation } from "./_generated/server";
export default mutation(
// The only change required to convert this function to
// TypeScript is annotating the type of a parameter `name`
async ({ db }, name: string) => {
return db.insert("channels", { name });
}
);
If TypeScript is installed in your project npx convex dev
and
npx convex deploy
will typecheck Convex functions before sending code to the
Convex backend.
Convex functions are typechecked with the tsconfig.json
in the Convex folder:
you can modify some parts of this file to change typechecking settings, or
delete this file to disable this typecheck.
You'll find most database methods have a return type of Promise<any>
until you
add a schema.
Adding a schema
Once you define a schema the type signature of database
methods will be known. You'll also be able to use types imported from
convex/_generated/dataModel
in both Convex functions and application code.
The types of documents in tables can be described using Document
from the
generated data model and references to documents can be described with
parametrized Document IDs.
import { Document, Id } from "../convex/_generated/dataModel";
function Channel(props: { channelId: Id<"channels"> }) { ... }
function MessagesView(props: { message: Document<"messages"> }) { ... }
Writing frontend code in TypeScript
Invocations of useQuery
and
useMutation
the signatures of their
corresponding Convex functions. For end to end type safety, install and
configure TypeScript so you can write your React components in .tsx
files
instead of .jsx
files.
Recommended TypeScript version
Convex works best with TypeScript version 4.8.4 or newer.