---
title: Testing Types | Guide
---

# Testing Types

::: tip Sample Project

[GitHub](https://github.com/vitest-dev/vitest/tree/main/examples/typecheck) - [Play Online](https://stackblitz.com/fork/github/vitest-dev/vitest/tree/main/examples/typecheck?initialPath=__vitest__/)

:::

Vitest allows you to write tests for your types, using `expectTypeOf` or `assertType` syntaxes. By default all tests inside `*.test-d.ts` files are considered type tests, but you can change it with [`typecheck.include`](/config/typecheck#typecheck-include) config option.

Under the hood Vitest calls `tsc` or `vue-tsc`, depending on your config, and parses results. Vitest will also print out type errors in your source code, if it finds any. You can disable it with [`typecheck.ignoreSourceErrors`](/config/typecheck#typecheck-ignoresourceerrors) config option.

Keep in mind that Vitest doesn't run these files, they are only statically analyzed by the compiler. Meaning, that if you use a dynamic name or `test.each` or `test.for`, the test name will not be evaluated - it will be displayed as is.

::: warning
Before Vitest 2.1, your `typecheck.include` overrode the `include` pattern, so your runtime tests did not actually run; they were only type-checked.

Since Vitest 2.1, if your `include` and `typecheck.include` overlap, Vitest will report type tests and runtime tests as separate entries.
:::

Using CLI flags, like `--allowOnly` and `-t` are also supported for type checking.

```ts [mount.test-d.ts]
import { assertType, expectTypeOf } from 'vitest'
import { mount } from './mount.js'

test('my types work properly', () => {
  expectTypeOf(mount).toBeFunction()
  expectTypeOf(mount).parameter(0).toExtend<{ name: string }>()

  // @ts-expect-error name is a string
  assertType(mount({ name: 42 }))
})
```

Any type error triggered inside a test file will be treated as a test error, so you can use any type trick you want to test types of your project.

You can see a list of possible matchers in [API section](/api/expect-typeof).

## Reading Errors

If you are using `expectTypeOf` API, refer to the [expect-type documentation on its error messages](https://github.com/mmkal/expect-type#error-messages).

When types don't match, `.toEqualTypeOf` and `.toExtend` use a special helper type to produce error messages that are as actionable as possible. But there's a bit of an nuance to understanding them. Since the assertions are written "fluently", the failure should be on the "expected" type, not the "actual" type (`expect<Actual>().toEqualTypeOf<Expected>()`). This means that type errors can be a little confusing - so this library produces a `MismatchInfo` type to try to make explicit what the expectation is. For example:

```ts
expectTypeOf({ a: 1 }).toEqualTypeOf<{ a: string }>()
```

Is an assertion that will fail, since `{a: 1}` has type `{a: number}` and not `{a: string}`.  The error message in this case will read something like this:

```
test/test.ts:999:999 - error TS2344: Type '{ a: string; }' does not satisfy the constraint '{ a: \\"Expected: string, Actual: number\\"; }'.
  Types of property 'a' are incompatible.
    Type 'string' is not assignable to type '\\"Expected: string, Actual: number\\"'.

999 expectTypeOf({a: 1}).toEqualTypeOf<{a: string}>()
```

Note that the type constraint reported is a human-readable messaging specifying both the "expected" and "actual" types. Rather than taking the sentence `Types of property 'a' are incompatible // Type 'string' is not assignable to type "Expected: string, Actual: number"` literally - just look at the property name (`'a'`) and the message: `Expected: string, Actual: number`. This will tell you what's wrong, in most cases. Extremely complex types will of course be more effort to debug, and may require some experimentation. Please [raise an issue](https://github.com/mmkal/expect-type) if the error messages are actually misleading.

The `toBe...` methods (like `toBeString`, `toBeNumber`, `toBeVoid` etc.) fail by resolving to a non-callable type when the `Actual` type under test doesn't match up. For example, the failure for an assertion like `expectTypeOf(1).toBeString()` will look something like this:

```
test/test.ts:999:999 - error TS2349: This expression is not callable.
  Type 'ExpectString<number>' has no call signatures.

999 expectTypeOf(1).toBeString()
                    ~~~~~~~~~~
```

The `This expression is not callable` part isn't all that helpful - the meaningful error is the next line, `Type 'ExpectString<number> has no call signatures`. This essentially means you passed a number but asserted it should be a string.

If TypeScript added support for ["throw" types](https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/pull/40468) these error messages could be improved significantly. Until then they will take a certain amount of squinting.

### Concrete "expected" objects vs typeargs

Error messages for an assertion like this:

```ts
expectTypeOf({ a: 1 }).toEqualTypeOf({ a: '' })
```

Will be less helpful than for an assertion like this:

```ts
expectTypeOf({ a: 1 }).toEqualTypeOf<{ a: string }>()
```

This is because the TypeScript compiler needs to infer the typearg for the `.toEqualTypeOf({a: ''})` style, and this library can only mark it as a failure by comparing it against a generic `Mismatch` type. So, where possible, use a typearg rather than a concrete type for `.toEqualTypeOf` and `.toExtend`. If it's much more convenient to compare two concrete types, you can use `typeof`:

```ts
const one = valueFromFunctionOne({ some: { complex: inputs } })
const two = valueFromFunctionTwo({ some: { other: inputs } })

expectTypeOf(one).toEqualTypeOf<typeof two>()
```

If you find it hard working with `expectTypeOf` API and figuring out errors, you can always use more simple `assertType` API:

```ts
const answer = 42

assertType<number>(answer)
// @ts-expect-error answer is not a string
assertType<string>(answer)
```

::: tip
When using `@ts-expect-error` syntax, you might want to make sure that you didn't make a typo. You can do that by including your type files in [`test.include`](/config/include) config option, so Vitest will also actually *run* these tests and fail with `ReferenceError`.

This will pass, because it expects an error, but the word “answer” has a typo, so it's a false positive error:

```ts
// @ts-expect-error answer is not a string
assertType<string>(answr)
```
:::

## Run Typechecking

To enable typechecking, just add [`--typecheck`](/config/typecheck) flag to your Vitest command in `package.json`:

```json [package.json]
{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "vitest --typecheck"
  }
}
```

Now you can run typecheck:

::: code-group
```bash [npm]
npm run test
```
```bash [yarn]
yarn test
```
```bash [pnpm]
pnpm run test
```
```bash [bun]
bun test
```
:::

Vitest uses `tsc --noEmit` or `vue-tsc --noEmit`, depending on your configuration, so you can remove these scripts from your pipeline.
