Compiling Typescript for Deployment

Platformatic Service provides automatic TypeScript compilation during the startup of your Node.js server. While this provides an amazing developer experience, in production it adds additional start time and it requires more resources. In this guide, we show how to compile your TypeScript source files before shipping to a server.

Setup

The following is supported by all Platformatic applications, as they are all based on the same plugin system. If you have generated your application using npx create-platformatic@latest, you will have a similar section in your config file:

{
  ...
  "plugins": {
    "paths": [{
      "path": "plugins",
      "encapsulate": false
    }, "routes"],
    "typescript": "{PLT_TYPESCRIPT}"
  }
}

Note that the {PLT_TYPESCRIPT} will be automatically replaced with the PLT_TYPESCRIPT environment variable, that is configured in your .env (and .env.sample) file:

PLT_TYPESCRIPT=true

Older Platformatic applications might not have the same layout, if so you can update your settings to match (after updating your dependencies).

Compiling for deployment

Compiling for deployment is then as easy as running plt service compile in that same folder. Remember to set PLT_TYPESCRIPT=false in your environment variables in the deployed environments.

Usage with Runtime

If you are building a Runtime-based application, you will need to compile every service independently or use the plt runtime compile command.

Avoid shipping TypeScript sources

If you want to avoid shipping the TypeScript sources you need to configure Platformatic with the location where your files have been built by adding an outDir option:

{
  ...
  "plugins": {
    "paths": [{
      "path": "plugins",
      "encapsulate": false
    }, "routes"],
    "typescript": {
      "enabled": "{PLT_TYPESCRIPT}",
      "outDir": "dist"
    }
  }
}

This is not necessary if you include tsconfig.json together with the compiled code.