The inferred type of '...' cannot be named without a reference to '../../lib-b/node_modules/...'. This is likely not portable.

[GuillaumeLagrange]

I have an issue in my monorepo using pnpm and typescript, which started to occur after my migration from yarn to pnpm.

Here is the gist of how to reproduce the issue

• Package @my-app/lib-b package has random-package (not important) as dependency, exporting a TypeFromDependency type
• In this package, define a function sharedFunction whose return type depends directly on TypeFromDependency
• Service @my-app/lib-a has @my-app/lib-a as dependency and uses sharedFunction as follows:

export const bar = sharedFunction();

This produces the following warning

The inferred type of 'bar' cannot be named without a reference to '../../lib-b/node_modules/random-package/dist'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.

pnpm version:

7.27.0

Code to reproduce the issue:

https://github.com/GuillaumeLagrange/type-issue

• Clone the repo
• Run pnpm install
• Run pnpm package (the command will fail because tsc fails in libA workspace, this is the issue)
• Open packages/lib-a/src/libA.ts in VSCode/your IDE, see the following error

The inferred type of 'exportedLibB' cannot be named without a reference to '../../lib-b/node_modules/random/dist'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.

Expected behavior:

Unless I am mistaken, no type error should occur, lib-a exports a variable which is the return value of a lib-b function, declared as dependency

Actual behavior:

The inferred type of 'exportedLibB' cannot be named without a reference to '../../lib-b/node_modules/random/dist'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.

Additional information:

• node -v prints: v16.19.0
• Windows, macOS, or Linux?: Reproduced on MacOS and Linux, no windows computer to test this out.

Notes

The issue occurs with
$ pnpm tsc in packages/lib-a
But does not occur when running
$ pnpm tsc --noEmit in packages/lib-a

It looks like microsoft/TypeScript#47663

I have originally opened the issue in here swarmion/swarmion#508

[await-ovo]

According this comment microsoft/TypeScript#42873 (comment), seems that we can use this as a workaround:

[GuillaumeLagrange]

It does seem like the easiest workaround, just tested on my project and it works. Thank you for pointing it out !

I think the issue is still worth keeping open until the root cause is fixed, but I will let maintainers here be the judge of that

[jgoux]

The workaround doesn't work when you export a type which is then consumed by the other package.

In my case:

// packages/api
export type WebRouter = typeof webRouter

// packages/web
import { createReactQueryHooks } from '@trpc/react'
import type { WebRouter } from 'api'
const trpc = createReactQueryHooks<WebRouter>()

web/src/lib/trpc.tsx:7:14 - error TS2742: The inferred type of 'trpc' cannot be named without a reference to '../../../api/node_modules/@snaplet/sdk/src'. This is likely not portable. A type annotation is necessary.

7 export const trpc = createReactQueryHooks<WebRouter>()

I had the same issue involving @prisma/client and @trpc/server, I was able to resolve them by adding both to public hoisting and manually deleting their local symlink in packages/api/node_modules/{@prisma/client,@trpc/server}.

The main issue now is that web being one of my own packages in my workspace, I have no option to hoist it to the root with pnpm.

I wish it could be solved more simply.

[pkerschbaum]

FYI I added a comment in TypeScript#47663 which has workarounds for this issue when using pnpm monorepos.

[aminya]

Using node-linker=hoisted fixes the issue. However, it causes the post-install scripts to run every time you run the install. But it is worth fixing this issue.