global.d.ts

We discussed global vs. file modules when covering projects and recommended using file based modules and not polluting the global namespace.

Nevertheless, if you have beginner TypeScript developers you can give them a global.d.ts file to put interfaces / types in the global namespace to make it easy to have some types just magically available for consumption in all your TypeScript code.

Another use case for a global.d.ts file is to declare compile-time constants that are being injected into the source code by Webpack via the standard DefinePlugin plugin.

declare const BUILD_MODE_PRODUCTION: boolean; // can be used for conditional compiling
declare const BUILD_VERSION: string;

For any code that is going to generate JavaScript we highly recommend using file modules, and only use global.d.ts to declare compile-time constants and/or to extend standard type declarations declared in lib.d.ts.

• Bonus: The global.d.ts file is also good for quick declare module "some-library-you-dont-care-to-get-defs-for"; when doing JS to TS migrations.