Could not find a declaration file for module 'firebase-tools'

Question

I am writing my first cloud function for Firebase and it requires the firebase-tools module. I've installing it by adding it to my dependencies in the package.json file and running npm install.

Then I tried to import it using import * as tools from 'firebase-tools';, but I get this error:

Could not find a declaration file for module 'firebase-tools'. 'c:/Users/LENOVO/Nouveau dossier/functions/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/index.js' implicitly has an 'any' type. Try npm install @types/firebase-tools if it exists or add a new declaration (.d.ts) file containing `declare module 'firebase-tools';

I also tried running npm install @types/firebase-tools, but apparently it does not exist and I'm not sure what I should put in the (.d.ts) file for this module.

So I'm asking if there's another solution and if I need to create a (.d.ts) file what should I put there beside declare module 'firebase-tools.

Ryannryazan

Hey, firebase-tools is a command line interface tool and not be included in package.json. Just run "npm install -g firebase-tools" to install the tools. And now use "firebase init" to create a new firebase project. Complete documentation is present here – Caesarea

Hey Akshay , thanks for your answer. But I already did that and still it doesn't work. I included the dependency in my package.json file because it's what they did in this link: github.com/firebase/snippets-node/blob/master/firestore/…. And it is said that it can be used as a module over here too : npmjs.com/package/firebase-tools. I'm not sure what I'm missing, please correct me if I'm wrong. – Ryannryazan

Can you please share what is it that is not working? What do you need this package for? – Caesarea

When I try to import the package I get an error saying that there is no declaration file for the package. And I'm trying to write a cloud function for Firebase that does the deletion of a collection and its subcollections for Firestore and from what I found this requires this package. When I open the lib folder of the package that I've installed there's a folder called 'firestore' and a JavaScript file called 'delete' , so i guess that what I need in my case.The other packages has there own declaration files with the extension (.d.ts) but there's none for this one. – Ryannryazan

Hey everyone, the docs here clearly say we need to use firebase-tools inside a cloud function. But since my cloud functions are TS, I'm also confused on how I can execute this. – Winne

Answer 1

I have same problem, too. The problem is that firebase-tools modules don't have (.d.ts)file. I found that we have 3 solutions in this situation.

• install @types/xxx ←you have done, but it doesn't exist.
• self made (.d.ts)file ←I don't know very well.
• use "require" instead of "import" ←I solved this way.The modules are imported as "any" type implicitly.

when ts-lint alert you "[tslint] require statement not part of an import statement (no-var-requires)", you can ignore it by comment "// tslint:disable-next-line:no-var-requires"

Thank you for reading.

Dichromatism

do you know why it doen'st have a .d.ts file? Why don't they include typescript support by default for all their projects? – Vanzandt

@Vanzandt based on the discussion on their GitHub issue it seems the amount of runtime code-gen makes a type definition file difficult to produce. github.com/firebase/firebase-tools/issues/2378 – Cribbs

Answer 2

The way I solved this problem was:

First of all, add "firebase-tools": "^9.10.0" to your package.json under /functions directory, like so:

"dependencies": {
...
"firebase-admin": "^9.2.0",
"firebase-functions": "^3.13.1",
"firebase-tools": "^9.10.0"
},

Then, in your function code use require instead of import, like so:

const firebase_tools = require('firebase-tools');

Rabe

Answer 3

try to add "noImplicitAny": false, to tsconfig.json

Viquelia

Answer 4

This is currently open as issue #2378 (as of May, 2024). Until that is resolved and the project provides official types, you can manually create a module declaration with just enough type definitions to access a single command like this:

Create a new file types/FirebaseTools.d.ts. I determined the parameter names and types by looking at the output of firebase <command> -h.

declare module "firebase-tools" {

  // here we expose just enough to get the database:remove command to work in Typescript
  interface FirebaseClient {

    database: {
      remove: (path: string, options?: DatabaseRemoveOptions) => Promise<void>;
    };

  }
  const client: FirebaseClient;
  export default client;

  // global program options
  interface FirebaseToolsOptions {
    /** the Google account to use for authorization */
    account?: string;
    /** the Firebase project to use for this command */
    project?: string;
    /** output JSON instead of text, also triggers non-interactive mode */
    json?: boolean;
    /** error out of the command instead of waiting for prompts */
    "non-interactive"?: boolean;
    /** print verbose debug output and keep a debug log file */
    debug?: boolean;
  }

  // options specific to database:remove
  interface DatabaseRemoveOptions extends FirebaseToolsOptions {
    /** bypass confirmation prompt */
    force?: boolean;
    /** use the database <instance>.firebaseio.com (if omitted, use default instance) */
    instance?: string;
    /** suppress any Cloud functions triggered by this operation */
    "disable-triggers"?: boolean;
  }
}

Then add a mapping to paths inside tsconfig.json

{
  // ...
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ...
    "paths": {
      "firebase-tools": ["./types/FirebaseTools.d.ts"],
    },
  },
}

Now you can import the package as a module and access the particular command described in the type definition:

import FirebaseCLI from "firebase-tools";

// ...

await FirebaseCLI.database.remove("/foo/bar", {
  "non-interactive": true,
  force: true,
  "disable-triggers": true,
});

Archimedes