Template files: expose template API types via a real import (drop tsconfig types requirement)

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
46/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
node.js, typescript
Domain
developer-experience, tooling

Research direction

Start by reading package.json and raw_templates.ts to understand the existing exports and how template imports are validated and rewritten. Then inspect the current figma-types declaration and its tests, if present, to see how the template API is typed. Done means the new subpath resolves through normal TypeScript module resolution and the CLI still rewrites it to the sandbox import while preserving existing 'figma' support.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Related: #261 — that issue asks for the Template API types to be published via npm (which figma-types now does); this one asks to make them resolvable without tsconfig configuration.

Problem

Template files use a virtual module:

import figma from 'figma'

There is no figma package on npm — the module is injected by the CLI sandbox at execution time (raw_templates.ts rewrites the import to require('figma') before transpiling). TypeScript can therefore only resolve it through the ambient declaration shipped as @figma/code-connect/figma-types, which requires every consuming project to edit its tsconfig.json:

{ "compilerOptions": { "types": ["@figma/code-connect/figma-types"] } }

Pain points:

  • Monorepos: one edit per package that owns Code Connect files (dozens for us).
  • Packages that already set compilerOptions.types (e.g. for @testing-library/jest-dom) must merge entries manually; @types/* auto-inclusion stops applying, so this is easy to get wrong.
  • The ambient figma-types entry also declares a global require, which conflicts with @types/node — hence the need for the separate figma-types-no-require variant.
Proposal

Let template files import the template API from a real module specifier, e.g.:

import figma from '@figma/code-connect/template'

Implementation sketch (sandbox semantics unchanged):

  1. New subpath export in package.json: 
    "./template": {
  "types": "./template.d.ts",
  "default": "./template.js"
}
    • template.d.ts: the current figma-types content expressed as a real module (export the API type / a typed default) instead of declare module 'figma'.
    • template.js: a stub that throws at runtime (e.g. "template files are executed by the Code Connect CLI") — it is never loaded in practice since the CLI rewrites the import.
  2. CLI: extend figmaImportRegex / import validation in raw_templates.ts to accept the new specifier alongside 'figma', rewriting both to require('figma') before transpilation.
  3. Keep the existing 'figma' specifier + figma-types for backward compatibility.

Why a subpath and not the root entry: the root already exports a different figma (the React/HTML parser API — figma.connect, figma.boolean, …). The template API (selectedInstance, figma.code, figma.batch, figma.helpers) is a distinct surface.

Because the specifier becomes a real module, tsc/tsserver resolve its types through normal module resolution — no tsconfig changes needed in consuming projects.

Alternatives considered
  • @types/figma on DefinitelyTyped: decouples the types from CLI releases (they must version in lockstep since they describe the template runtime API) and @types auto-inclusion is disabled as soon as a project sets compilerOptions.types, which is common — so it wouldn't fix the main pain point.
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Getting set up

This project ships no dev container, Dockerfile or contributing guide, so setting up is up to you: start from its README, and see our first-contribution guide for the general steps.

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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