[api-extractor] Reuse TypeScript's module-resolution results to avoid realpath/lstat storm when resolving external package names
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100
- Issue type
- Refactor
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Tech stack
- node.js, typescript
- Domain
- performance, tooling
Research direction
Start at DeclarationReferenceGenerator._getPackageName, then inspect Collector, AstSymbolTable, and TypeScriptInternals.ts for program-resolution access. Include module and type-reference resolutions, verify packageId and resolvedFileName matching, and run the acceptance-test projects to confirm byte-identical API reports while preserving the filesystem fallback.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Summary
During analysis, DeclarationReferenceGenerator._getPackageName(sourceFile) calls PackageJsonLookup.tryLoadNodePackageJsonFor(sourceFile.fileName) once per external source file. That path (PackageJsonLookup._tryLoadNodePackageJsonInner) calls FileSystem.getRealPath() (Node fs.realpathSync → an lstat per path segment, following symlinks) before the content cache can help, and the upward folder walk in _tryGetPackageFolderFor does it at each directory level. In pnpm workspaces (a node_modules symlink farm) this produces a large lstat storm and shows up as a significant chunk of api-extractor CPU time in profiles.
This was noticed while profiling the type-check optimization in https://github.com/microsoft/rushstack/pull/5891 — after removing the whole-program semantic check, realpathSync→lstat inside FileSystem.getRealPath → tryLoadNodePackageJsonFor was the next-largest chunk.
Insight
TypeScript already resolved every one of these modules during program construction and recorded the answer. Each ResolvedModuleFull carries:
resolvedFileName— the already-realpath'd target (TS paid thelstatcost once, cached), andpackageId.name— the bare package name, which is exactly what_getPackageNamereconstructs via the filesystem walk (packageId.subModuleNameholds the sub-path separately).
Proof of concept
Probing the @rushstack/mcp-server program via the (internal) program.forEachResolvedModule(cb):
resolutions: total=1111, withPackageId=1103, uniqueFiles=258
@modelcontextprotocol/sdk <= @modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/server/mcp.d.ts
zod <= zod/index.d.cts
...
99.3% of resolutions carry packageId, and packageId.name came back as the bare package name even for non-index files.
Proposed design
- Build a
Map<resolvedFileName, packageId.name>once (e.g. offCollector/AstSymbolTable) via the internalprogram.forEachResolvedModule(...). Type-reference-directive resolutions (forEachResolvedTypeReferenceDirective) also carrypackageIdand should be included. - In
_getPackageName, consult the map first (keyed bysourceFile.fileName) — zero filesystem access for the common case. - Fall back to
tryLoadNodePackageJsonForon a miss (the ~0.7% withoutpackageId, or files reached via other means), preserving today's exact behavior.
forEachResolvedModule / getResolvedModule are TypeScript internals (not in the public .d.ts), but api-extractor already accesses TS internals via TypeScriptInternals.ts, so this is consistent with existing patterns.
Caveats to validate
packageId.namesemantics — the TS doc comment hints it may include a subpath in some cases; the PoC showed bare names, but this needs verification against@typespackages and deep imports vs. the existingpackageJson.namebehavior.- Key matching —
resolvedFileNamemust equal the program'ssourceFile.fileName(generally true;preserveSymlinksis the edge case). - Correctness — must produce byte-identical API reports across all acceptance-test projects. The fast-path-with-fallback design keeps this low-risk.
Related
- Follow-up to #5891 (type-check pass optimization).
- Also worth checking
SourceMapper.getRealPathusage for the same treatment.
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 6.5k
- Forks
- 708
- Avg merge
- 5d 19h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 48
Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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