Question: "Cannot find namespace 'e' when using Typescript types from edgeql-js

Hi! Sorry for a “question issue”, but I just can’t get past this myself.

• I’ve setup edgeql-js according to the docs.
• I’ve run npx edgeql-js to generate all code.
• I can query for results with e.select().run(client) and so on.

But when I try to do use a generated TS type from the package, I run into this TS error:

error TS2503: Cannot find namespace 'e'

Code:

import e from './edgeql-js'; // auto-generated

// can't use my own types from the schema:
//   error TS2503: Cannot find namespace 'e'
let c: e.Contact = {};

// not even built-types work:
//   error TS2503: Cannot find namespace 'e'
let s: e.str = e.str('hey');

I’m following the docs in “Objects and paths”, which says:

All object types in your schema are reflected into the query builder, properly namespaced by module. … For convenience, the contents of the default module are also available at the top-level of e.

Are the docs talking about the Typescript type here? Or is it a reference to the EdgeQL schema type?

Thoughts

• Am I somehow misunderstanding the use of the types from edgeql-js? Am I not supposed to be using them like this? I was of the impression of that I could generate TS types and use in my app code. I understand the types are inferred when returning from a query function, but there are places where I’d like to get hold of the type too, for use in React component props, for instance.
• Am I importing e incorrectly?

Versions

Typescript: 4.5.5
EdgeDB (npm): 0.19.8

---

Many thanks!

[jaclarke]

PR for this here: https://github.com/edgedb/edgedb-js/pull/281

[colinhacks]

The $XXXXXλShape types are very different - that is a complex data structure representing that EdgeDB type. You can introspect what this type looks like by playing around with autocompletion:

e.Movie.__element__.__pointers__;
// $MovieλShape

We don’t currently generate “plain” types like what you are describing, though I think we should. It’ll probably look something like this:

import e, {types} from "./dbschema/edgeql-js";
type Movie = types["default"]["Movie"];
// {title: string; actors: Person, ...}

Should be possible to do @jaclarke thoughts? Internally it’ll look something like this:

interface default$$User {
  name: string;
  filmography: default$$Movie[];
}
interface default$$Movie {
  name: string;
  actors: default$$User[];
}
interface default$$ {
  User: default$$User;
  Movie: default$$Movie;
}
export interface types {
  default: default$$;
}

type asdf = types['default']['User']['filmography']