🔍 Search Terms

"opt out", "default", "strict", "tsconfig"

✅ Viability Checklist

• This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code
• This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
• This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
• This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, new syntax sugar for JS, etc.)
• This isn't a request to add a new utility type: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/No-New-Utility-Types
• This feature would agree with the rest of our Design Goals: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/TypeScript-Design-Goals

⭐ Suggestion

Enable all strictness-related compiler options by default starting in TypeScript 7.0.

Instead of requiring users to opt into strictness via flags like noImplicitAny, and strictNullChecks, all strictness options should default to true. Users should explicitly disable checks they do not want.

Additionally, any new strictness flags introduced in future versions should also be enabled by default automatically.

📃 Motivating Example

{ "compilerOptions": { "module": "nodenext", "target": "esnext", "types": ["node"], "moduleResolution": "nodenext", "declaration": true, "emitDeclarationOnly": true, "noUncheckedIndexedAccess": true, "exactOptionalPropertyTypes": true, "strict": true, "jsx": "react-jsx", "verbatimModuleSyntax": true, "isolatedModules": true, "noUncheckedSideEffectImports": true, "moduleDetection": "force", "skipLibCheck": true, "lib": ["esnext", "dom", "dom.iterable"], "noEmitOnError": false, "exactOptionalPropertyTypes": true, "noImplicitReturns": true, "noImplicitOverride": true, "noUnusedLocals": true, "noUnusedParameters": true, "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true, "noPropertyAccessFromIndexSignature": true, "allowArbitraryExtensions": true, "allowUnreachableCode": false, "erasableSyntaxOnly": true, "noImplicitThis": true, "resolveJsonModule": true, "strictBuiltinIteratorReturn": true, "strictFunctionTypes": true, "noImplicitAny": true, "allowJs": false, "isolatedDeclarations": false, "allowImportingTsExtensions": true }, }

Would turn into something like:

{ "compilerOptions": { "module": "nodenext", "target": "esnext", "moduleResolution": "nodenext", "declaration": true, "emitDeclarationOnly": true, "jsx": "react-jsx", "isolatedModules": true, "moduleDetection": "force", "skipLibCheck": true, "lib": ["esnext", "dom", "dom.iterable"], "noEmitOnError": false, "allowArbitraryExtensions": true, "resolveJsonModule": true, "isolatedDeclarations": false, } }

💻 Use Cases

1. Reduce time spent configuring tsconfig.json (especially when starting fresh and not relying on older code bases)
2. Ensure projects always use the safest and most modern type-checking defaults
3. Avoid missing newly introduced strictness flags
4. Strictness is opt-in, leading to inconsistent safety across projects (especially in larger orgs where not everyone keeps track of new options)
5. stop manually adding new compiler options over time
6. Reduce reliance on base configs or templates to set up new projects

Usually the options you don't want, is smaller and more consistent than the options you do want.