tsoa spec-and-routes fails on reference types referencing large union types

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Expected Behavior

From what I understand, tsoa routes-and-spec should be able to process this controller :

(the code looks a bit stupid, because it was simplified a lot, but I have valid reasons for using this pattern)

// src/controllers/controller.ts
import { Controller, Get, Route, Tags } from 'tsoa'

// with the controller as is, tsoa fails
// if you remove any item in the union type it succeeds

type LargeUnionType =
  { type: 'step-identify' }
  | { type: 'step-add-address' }
  | { type: 'step-verify-address' }
  | { type: 'step-add-naf-code' }
  | { type: 'step-verify-naf-code' }
  | { type: 'step-add-activity' }
  | { type: 'step-add-employee-count' }
  | { type: 'step-add-revenue' }
  | { type: 'step-add-occupation' }
  | { type: 'step-add-surface' }
  | { type: 'step-add-place-extra' }
  | { type: 'step-add-prevention-extra' }
  | { type: 'step-add-email' }

type LargeUnionTypeReference = LargeUnionType['type']

@Tags('Demo')
@Route('demo')
export class DemoController extends Controller {
  @Get('demo')
  async myRoute (): Promise<LargeUnionTypeReference> {
    return 'step-identify'
  }
}

Current Behavior

What happens it that tsoa routes-and-spec fails with this error

npm run tsoa

> reproduce-tsoa-issue@1.0.0 tsoa
> tsoa spec-and-routes

There was a problem resolving type of 'LargeUnionTypeReference'.
Generate routes error.
 Error: Could not determine the keys on any
At: src/controllers/controller.ts:28:28.
This was caused by 'type LargeUnionTypeReference = LargeUnionType['type']'
    at new GenerateMetadataError (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/exceptions.js:22:28)
    at TypeResolver.resolve (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:314:23)
    at TypeResolver.getTypeAliasReference (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:594:353)
    at TypeResolver.getReferenceType (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:569:38)
    at TypeResolver.resolve (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:367:34)
    at TypeResolver.resolve (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:357:118)
    at MethodGenerator.Generate (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/methodGenerator.js:59:76)
    at /home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/controllerGenerator.js:60:58
    at Array.map (<anonymous>)
    at ControllerGenerator.buildMethods (/home/rossille/work/reproduce-tsoa-issue/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/controllerGenerator.js:60:14)

Possible Solution

I have no idea how to fix it but I debugged a little bit, and I realized that the issue is triggered by the number of items of the union type generated by LargeUnionType['type']

If I remove any of the options, it works.

Also, I troubleshooted a little bit, and I found that the original cause of the failure is this exception :

Error: No declarations found for referenced type ... 4 more ....
    at new GenerateMetadataError (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/exceptions.js:22:28)
    at TypeResolver.getModelTypeDeclaration (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:715:19)
    at TypeResolver.typeArgumentsToContext (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:844:32)
    at TypeResolver.getReferenceType (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:557:14)
    at TypeResolver.resolve (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:372:34)
    at /home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:116:95
    at Array.map (<anonymous>)
    at TypeResolver.resolve (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:115:45)
    at TypeResolver.resolve (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:314:177)
    at TypeResolver.getTypeAliasReference (/home/rossille/work/orus-monorepo/api/node_modules/@tsoa/cli/dist/metadataGeneration/typeResolver.js:600:353)

And upon digging further, I saw that the problems happens when getModelTypeDeclaration manipulates this object :

IdentifierObject {
  pos: -1,
  end: -1,
  flags: 8,
  modifierFlagsCache: 0,
  transformFlags: 0,
  parent: undefined,
  kind: 79,
  originalKeywordKind: undefined,
  escapedText: '... 4 more ...'
}

At this point I stopped, because I don’t know how to go on from here.

Steps to Reproduce

I created a minimal repo to reproduce this issue, it’s here.

To reproduce :

git clone [e-mail]:orus-tech/reproduce-tsoa-issue.git
cd reproduce-tsoa-issue
npm install
npm run tsoa

Context (Environment)

Version of the library: 3.14.1 Version of NodeJS: 16.13.1

• Confirm you were using yarn not npm: [ ] No, I used NPM to install TSOA (but I’m an end user, I’m not working on tsoa itself)

Detailed Description

N/A

Breaking change?

N/A

[rossille]

Sorry I don’t confirm 😦 Hi, upgraded my test repo version to v4.0.0-beta.0 The issue remains

[rossille]

You’re welcome. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help !