Editor Setup (Local Plugin Development)

Consumers do not need Go installed. Plugin authors usually do, because direct go test, go vet, and gopls feedback are much faster than running ttsc for every edit. This page is the second authoring page on purpose — you will want gopls autocomplete the moment you import a shim in Getting started.

Basic Loop

For a check plugin that does not import TypeScript-Go shims:

go test ./plugin/...
go vet ./plugin/...
go build ./plugin

That is enough for simple diagnostics plugins. Transform plugins usually import the ttsc driver or TypeScript-Go shims.

Driver-only plugins

If your plugin only imports github.com/samchon/ttsc/packages/ttsc/driver (the Hello plugin shape — see Getting started) and does not touch the shims directly, the go.work is two lines:

go 1.26

use (
    ./plugin
    ./node_modules/ttsc
)

Add npm i -D ttsc so node_modules/ttsc exists locally. Verify:

ls node_modules/ttsc/go.mod   # must exist

If it does not, you are hitting pnpm’s isolated linker — see pnpm below.

Shim-using plugins

If your plugin imports github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/shim/..., add every shim subpackage you use to go.work. Listing all is harmless and keeps editor setup simple — here is the complete list under packages/ttsc/shim/:

go 1.26

use (
    ./plugin
    ./node_modules/ttsc
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/ast
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/bundled
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/checker
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/compiler
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/core
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/diagnosticwriter
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/parser
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/printer
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/scanner
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/tsoptions
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/tspath
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/vfs
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/vfs/cachedvfs
    ./node_modules/ttsc/shim/vfs/osvfs
)

shim/lsp is intentionally omitted here. ttscserver wraps the project’s tsgo --lsp --stdio process, and plugin authors should not need in-process LSP internals.

go.mod

Every imported shim still needs a require line:

require github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/shim/ast v0.0.0

The go.work file tells Go where v0.0.0 lives locally. The plugin go.mod keeps require lines for imported host modules, and the installed ttsc package owns github.com/samchon/ttsc/packages/ttsc, github.com/microsoft/typescript-go, and github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/shim/.... Printer, AST, and other plugin helper code belongs under the plugin’s own module path while importing the ttsc-supplied shims.

go mod tidy ordering rule. Run go mod tidy from the plugin directory after go.work is in place; otherwise tidy cannot see the overlay paths and will re-introduce remote-fetch failures.

pnpm

Published plugins and normal consumer builds work with pnpm’s isolated linker. ttsc resolves descriptors through Node’s package resolver and stores source-plugin binaries in the shared user cache, so separate pnpm virtual-store paths can reuse the same native binary when the plugin source content matches.

Only manual Go tooling in a plugin development checkout needs the go.work file above. If that file points at ./node_modules/ttsc, make sure your development checkout actually exposes that path. Pnpm’s isolated linker may not. Use an absolute replacement to the installed ttsc package, or opt into a hoisted development layout:

# .npmrc
node-linker=hoisted

Hoisting is a local-development convenience for go test, go mod tidy, and gopls. It is not required for consumers running ttsc.

Ignore

Commit go.work; ignore machine-specific data:

node_modules/
go.work.sum

After a ttsc Upgrade

Run:

npm update ttsc
go test ./plugin/...
go vet ./plugin/...

If TypeScript-Go moved a shim symbol you use, the Go compile error points at the exact call site.

Next

→ Recipes — copyable patterns for --plugins-json, diagnostics, leaf-text mutations, and toolchain re-spawn.