TypeScript typings give me “index.d.ts is not a module”

Question

I am getting File node_modules/@types/webrtc/index.d.ts is not a module with this code:

import * as webrtc from "webrtc";
const peerConnection1 = new RTCPeerConnection();

I have installed the typings using npm i @types/webrtc --save-dev. Hovering over RTCPeerConnection in const peerConnection1 = new RTCPeerConnection(); display type annotations in Visual Studio Code so at least the code editor sees the types. Running tsc (or webpack with ts-loader) fails with the error.

I have tried npm i webrtc --save in a misguided attempt for solving this, but it did not change anything and I really only want the typings anyway, WebRTC is right there in the browser, I don't need a package for that. (Support aside.)

The index.d.ts file indeed is not a module, it just references two other files with interfaces in them. So I thought to remove import * as webrtc from "webrtc"; hoping the typings will still be visible by tsc somehow. (But that's impossible since I exclude node_modules in TypeScript config file.) When I do that RTCPeerConnection is no longer recognized.

Adding /// <reference src="node_modules/@types/webrtc/" /> did not help, tsc says Invalid reference directive syntax.

You can view a repository with minimal repro here on GitLab. I am not too well versed in TypeScript typings acquisition so please forgive my ignorance if I'm going about this all wrong.

Answer 1

webrtc is part of the browser; you're trying to import a module. Simply import the (typings) library:

import "webrtc";

you may need to use "moduleResolution": "node" in the compiler options.

Alternatively use the "types": ["webrtc"] compiler option and the compiler will automatically load those types up for you.

Answer 2

You probably want to add

"types": ["webrtc"]

to your tsconfig.json, or less preferrably, to use

/// <reference types="webrtc" />

in your source files. Here's an example of it in your tsconfig.json:

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "es5",
        "sourceMap": true,
        "noImplicitAny": true,

        "types": ["webrtc"]
    },
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules"
    ]
}

This tells TypeScript it should include webrtc declarations in your build

Answer 3

Another option is to add a new declaration file *.d.ts in your module, i.e.:

declare module 'my-module';

Answer 4

No need to import anything, run following:

1. npm install --save @types/webrtc

2. update tsconfig.json -

   "types": [ "@types/webrtc" ]

Answer 5

/// <reference types="@types/<your_types_module>" />

You may or may not want to do this depending on your build and style needs, but this seems to be the quick (and dirty) fix.

Answer 6

In my case it was a corrupted dependency, deleting the module and npm install did the work.

Answer 7

In my case, I was getting this error message with an index.d.ts file generated by the TypeScript compiler.

The problem was that I’d forgotten to specify any import or export declarations in the source .ts file. I removed the original module.export = {…} bit when porting from .js to .ts, and hadn’t yet replaced it.

This is how the docs define a ‘module’ (emphasis added):

In TypeScript, just as in ECMAScript 2015, any file containing a top-level import or export is considered a module. Conversely, a file without any top-level import or export declarations is treated as a script whose contents are available in the global scope (and therefore to modules as well).

Adding an export to the things I intended to export turned the index.d.ts into a module, clearing the error.

Answer 8

use require

const webRtc = require('webrtc');

and you import should be good to go