Proto2: nested types are always optional, required is ignored

Hi! I am working on a system with uses proto2, using protobuf-ts on the web browser side and having an issue where nested types are always generated as optional. Here is an example:

message Test {
  required User user = 1;  
  repeated Role roles = 2;
  required string name = 3;
  optional Settings settings = 4;
}

export interface Test {
    /**
     * @generated from protobuf field: users.User user = 1;
     */
    user?: User;
    /**
     * @generated from protobuf field: repeated users.Role roles = 2;
     */
    roles: Role[];
    /**
     * @generated from protobuf field: string name = 3;
     */
    name: string;
    /**
     * @generated from protobuf field: optional users.Settings settings = 4;
     */
    settings?: Settings;
}

user field shouldn’t be optional in that case, only settings. As you see name is generated correctly. I know support for proto2 is limited but I hope for some help here, it is really, really hard to find a good library for TypeScript with full proto2 support. Protobuf-ts is the closest one from multiple libs I tested… Thanks in advance for any help!

[timostamm]

In proto3, message fields are always optional on the wire. That means somebody can send you a User message without the org field, and it’s perfectly valid. The org property is optional to reflect that. I don’t know why optional is allowed for message fields in proto3, it doesn’t make sense to me and I guess it was an oversight.

[timostamm]

I missed the original description, let’s keep this open!