TypeScript error when using client without react

Intended outcome: Using the client without react should not result in an error. Note I do NOT want to enable skipLibCheck as this could hide actual problems.

Actual outcome: The following errors occur:

node_modules/@apollo/client/utilities/observables/Observable.d.ts:1:8 - error TS1259: Module '".../node_modules/@types/zen-observable/index"' can only be default-imported using the 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports' flag

1 import Observable from 'zen-observable';
         ~~~~~~~~~~

  node_modules/@types/zen-observable/index.d.ts:69:1
    69 export = Observable;
       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    This module is declared with using 'export =', and can only be used with a default import when using the 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports' flag.

node_modules/@apollo/client/react/context/ApolloConsumer.d.ts:1:19 - error TS2307: Cannot find module 'react' or its corresponding type declarations.

1 import React from 'react';
                    ~~~~~~~

node_modules/@apollo/client/react/context/ApolloContext.d.ts:1:19 - error TS2307: Cannot find module 'react' or its corresponding type declarations.

1 import React from 'react';
                    ~~~~~~~

node_modules/@apollo/client/react/context/ApolloProvider.d.ts:1:19 - error TS2307: Cannot find module 'react' or its corresponding type declarations.

1 import React from 'react';
                    ~~~~~~~

node_modules/@apollo/client/react/types/types.d.ts:2:27 - error TS2307: Cannot find module 'react' or its corresponding type declarations.

2 import { ReactNode } from 'react';
                            ~~~~~~~

node_modules/@apollo/client/react/types/types.d.ts:144:63 - error TS2503: Cannot find namespace 'JSX'.

144     children?: null | ((result: SubscriptionResult<TData>) => JSX.Element | null);

How to reproduce the issue: Reproduction repo: https://github.com/MatthiasKunnen/apollo-client-no-react-reproduction.

Versions

  System:
    OS: Linux 5.0 Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (Bionic Beaver)
  Binaries:
    Node: 12.18.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.0/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.0/bin/yarn
    npm: 6.14.4 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.0/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 85.0.4183.83
    Firefox: 80.0.1
  npmPackages:
    @apollo/client: ^3.1.5 => 3.1.5 
    apollo-angular: ^2.0.0 => 2.0.4 
    apollo-link-scalars: ^1.0.1 => 1.0.1 
    typescript: 4.0.2

[benjamn]

Instead of importing from @apollo/client, you can import from @apollo/client/core to get everything except the React-dependent stuff.

[MatthiasKunnen]

That fixes all the react issues, thanks!

The downside here is that the TypeScript import helper will import only from @apollo/client so it would be required to add a linter rule banning imports of @apollo/client to prevent people from mistakenly using the wrong import. Could this be changed so that react specific imports come from @apollo/client/react?