TypeScript getting error TS2304 cannot find name require

Question

I am trying to get my first TypeScript and DefinitelyTyped Node js application up and running  and running into some errors   I am getting the error  TS2304  Cannot find name  require    when I attempt to transpile a simple TypeScript Node js page  I have read through several other occurrences of this error on Stack nbsp Overflow  and I do not think I have similar issues  I am running at the shell prompt the command   tsc movie server model ts    The contents of this file are    use strict         lt reference path  typings tsd d ts    gt         movie server model ts - definition of movie schema     var mongoose   require  mongoose    Schema   mongoose Schema   var foo    test     The error is thrown on the var mongoose require  mongoose   line   The contents of the typings tsd d ts file are        lt reference path  node node d ts    gt       lt reference path  requirejs require d ts    gt    The  d ts file references were placed in the appropriate folders and added to typings tsd d ts by the commands   tsd install node --save tsd install require --save   The produced  js file seems to work fine  so I could ignore the error  But I would appreciate knowing why this error occurs and what I am doing wrong

User · Answer

For TypeScript 2 x  there are now two steps    Install a package that defines require  For example   npm install  types node --save-dev  Tell TypeScript to include it globally in tsconfig json          compilerOptions              types     node              The second step is only important if you need access to globally available functions such as require  For most packages  you should just use the import package from  package  pattern  There s no need to include every package in the tsconfig json types array above

User · Answer

As approved answer didn t mention possibility to actually create your own typings file  and import it there  let me add it below  Assuming you use npm as your package manager  you can  npm i  types node --save-dev  Then in your tsconfig file  tsconfig json  quot include quot     quot typings d ts quot     Then create your typings file  typings d ts import  node globals   Done  errors are gone  enjoy TypeScript

User · Answer

I ve been struggling from this issue as well  I believe that this works for all release candidates aka rc but I didn t test is though  For  angular rc 2 it works well    Add core-js as npm dependency in package json run typings install core-js --save remove all  es6-shim  occurances in your package json  You don t need it anymore    Cheers

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I found the solution was to use the TSD command   tsd install node --save   Which adds updates the typings tsd d ts file and that file contains all the type definitions that are required for a node application   At the top of my file  I put a reference to the tsd d ts like this        lt reference path     typings tsd d ts    gt    The require is defined like this as of January 2016   declare var require  NodeRequire   interface NodeModule       exports  any      require  NodeRequireFunction      id  string      filename  string      loaded  boolean      parent  any      children  any

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Just for reference  I am using Angular 7 1 4  TypeScript 3 1 6  and the only thing I need to do is to add this line in tsconfig json        types     node       within compilerOptions

User · Answer

Make sure you have installed npm i  types node

User · Answer

Did you specify what module to use to transpile the code  tsc --target es5 --module commonjs script ts You must do that to let the transpiler know that you re compiling NodeJS code  Docs  You must install mongoose definitions as well tsd install mongoose --save Do not use var to declare variables  unless necessary  which is a very rare case    use let instead   Learn more about that

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If you can compile code  but Visual Studio 2015 marks  require  functions as errors with error text cannot find name  require  or cannot resolve symbol  require   update TypeScript for Visual Studio 2015 to the latest version  at the moment 2 1 5  and update ReSharper  if you use it  to at least version 2016 3 2   I had this annoying problem for a while and couldn t find a solution  but I finally resolved it this way

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I couldn t get the  require  error to go away by using any of the tricks above   But I found out that the issue was that my TypeScript tools for Visual Studio where an old version  1 8 6 0  and the latest version as of today is  2 0 6 0    You can download the latest version of the tools from   TypeScript for Visual Studio 2015

User · Answer

Instead of    use strict         lt reference path  typings tsd d ts    gt    Try         lt reference path  typings tsd d ts    gt    use strict     i e  reference path first

User · Answer

In my case  it was a super stupid problem  where the src tsconfig app json was overriding the tsconfig json setting    So  I had this in tsconfig json        types            node          And this one in src tsconfig app json        types        I hope someone finds this helpful  as this error was causing me gray hairs

User · Answer

Just in addition to cgatian s answer  for TypeScript 1 x  If you are still seeing errors  please specifically provide index d ts in your compiler options    files          typings index d ts

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This answer relates to modern setups  TypeScript 2 x  Webpack   2 x   You don t need to install  types node  which is all of Node js types and is irrelevant for front-end code  actually complicating things such as setTimout different return values  etc    You do need to install  types webpack-env  npm i -D  types webpack-env  which gives the runtime signatures that Webpack has  including require  require ensure  etc    Also make sure that your tsconfig json file has no set  types  array -  which will make it pickup all type definitions in your node modules  types folder   If you want to restrict search of types you can set the typeRoot property to node modules  types

User · Answer

import   as mongoose from  mongoose

User · Answer

Electron   Angular 2 4 addition   On top of adding the  node  type to ts config various files  what eventually worked for me was adding the next to the typings d ts file   declare var window  Window  interface Window     process  any    require  any      Note that my case is developing with Electron   Angular 2 4  I needed the require on the window global

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I ve yet another answer that builds upon all previous ones that describe npm install  types node and including node in tsconfig json   compilerOptions   types   In my case  I have a base tsConfig json and a separate one in the Angular application that extends this one          extends          tsconfig json        compilerOptions              outDir       out-tsc app            types            My problem was the empty types in this tsconfi app json - it clobbers the one in the base configuration

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I took Peter Varga s answer to add declare var require  any  and made it into a generic solution that works for all  ts files generically by using the preprocess-loader    install preprocessor-loader   npm install preprocessor-loader  add the loader to your webpack config js  I m using ts-loader for processing TypeScript sources         module            loaders                 test     tsx                 loader   ts-loader preprocessor file amp config preprocess-ts json                      Add the configuration that will add the workaround to every source           line   false       file   true       callbacks               fileName    all            scope    source            callback     function shimRequire source  fileName    return  declare var require  any     source                   You can add the more robust require d ts the same way  but declare var require  any  was sufficient in my situation   Note  there s a bug in preprocessor 1 0 5  which cuts off the last line  so just make sure you have an extra line space return at the end and you ll be fine

User · Answer

For me it is resolved by adding types to the angular compiler options    angularCompilerOptions      fullTemplateTypeCheck   true   strictInjectionParameters   true   types      node

User · Answer

You can  declare var require  any   Or  for more comprehensive support  use DefinitelyTyped s require d ts  Also  instead of var mongoose   require  mongoose    you could try the following   import mongoose from  mongoose     or import mongoose   require  mongoose

User · Answer

Sometime missing  jasmine  from tsconfig json may cause this error   TypeScript 2 X   So add   types        node      jasmine      to your tsconfig json file

User · Answer

Quick and Dirty If you just have one file using require  or you re doing this for demo purposes you can define require at the top of your TypeScript file  declare var require  any  TypeScript 2 x If you are using TypeScript 2 x you no longer need to have Typings or Definitely Typed installed  Simply install the following package  npm install  types node --save-dev  The Future of Declaration Files  6 15 2016   Tools like Typings and tsd will continue to work  and we   ll be working alongside those communities to ensure a smooth transition   Verify or Edit your src tsconfig app json so that it contains the following       quot types quot      quot node quot      quot typeRoots quot      quot    node modules  types quot         Make sure is the file in the src folder and no the one on the root app folder  By default  any package under  types is already included in your build unless you ve specified either of these options   Read more TypeScript 1 x Using typings  DefinitelyTyped s replacement  you can specify a definition directly from a GitHub repository  Install typings npm install typings -g --save-dev  Install the requireJS type definition from DefinitelyType s repo typings install dt node --save --global  Webpack If you are using Webpack as your build tool you can include the Webpack types  npm install --save-dev  types webpack-env  Update your tsconfig json with the following under compilerOptions   quot types quot            quot webpack-env quot         This allows you to do require ensure and other Webpack specific functions  Angular CLI With CLI you can follow the Webpack step above and add the  quot types quot  block to your tsconfig app json  Alternatively  you could use the preinstalled node types  Keep in mind this will include additional types to your client-side code that are not really available   quot compilerOptions quot            other options      quot types quot            quot node quot

User · Answer

If you are facing this issue in a  ts file which is only there to provide you some constant values  then you can just     rename your  ts file to  js file   and the error will not come again

User · Answer

Add the following in tsconfig json    typeRoots         node modules  types

[node.js] TypeScript getting error TS2304: cannot find name ' require'

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