factorio-type-kit

Generate type definitions for the Factorio Lua API.

Currently supports typescript and a JSON IR.

Usage

factorio-type-kit is generally used to write mods. It can also be used to generate code based on the Factorio API.

• Writing a factorio mod in TypeScript?

  • npm install factorio-type-kit or yarn add factorio-type-kit
  • see the guide for writing statically typed factorio mods

• Generate API definitions

  • as a library?
    • install via the npm/yarn steps above. you can now import * from "factorio-type-kit" directly into your JS or TS application
    • the API exports a few functions, namely produce & printTs, etc. Please see src/bin.ts to see them in self-documenting action :)
  • as a cli?
    • install nodejs, which also installs npx
    • run npx factorio-type-kit --help to use the CLI

$ npx factorio-type-kit --help

Usage
  $ factorio-type-kit --language=[...]

Options
  --language, -l  ts,json
  --output, -o  path/to/filename/outupt.[ts|json]

Examples
  $ factorio-type-kit -l ts -o factorio.schema.d.ts

Motivation

Problem

• factorio API is hard to explore, because it is both wide and deep
  • many classes/events to interact with
  • many methods/props drilled into nested data-models used during model
• iteration is slow
  • lua is dynamically typed
  • objective iterate less & have higher quality by applying typechecking on mod

Solution

factorio-type-kit is an essential part of the solution. FTK does or supports the following:

• scrape factorio API
• convert scraped API datas into an intermediate representation (IR)
• convert the IR to typed language target, or just JSON

With your programming tools of choice, hopefully, you can now author factorio greatness with more power than Lua. Lua is a fine scripting language--but mods can be challenging without sufficient static analysis. Types can help!