RFLCT: Bringing Runtime Type Metadata to TypeScript 7
If you've built large-scale applications in TypeScript, chances are you've used a Dependency Injection (DI) container. As the creator of InversifyJS, I've spent years thinking deeply about inversion of control, decoupling, and how to make enterprise patterns feel natural in TypeScript. But for all those years, there has been a glaring elephant in the room: our heavy reliance on…
TypeScript 7 brings RFLCT, an AOT reflect metadata injector that eliminates the need for experimentalDecorators and emitDecoratorMetadata. RFLCT integrates with various build tools via unplugin or using the built-in CLI in TypeScript 7. By annotating types with a special Reflect wrapper, developers can expose runtime metadata without decorators or emitDecoratorMetadata.
The library performs three core transformations: design:symbols for global type registry, design:arguments for parameter type metadata, and resolve T () for compile-time type resolution. RFLCT standardizes type-to-memory mapping, enabling custom DI engines, object mapping, RPC frameworks, and runtime validation. Currently in alpha preview, developers can build and link RFLCT locally to experiment with this runtime metadata solution.
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