unplugin-auto-import

What is unplugin-auto-import?

unplugin-auto-import is a powerful tool for automatically importing functions, components, and other modules in your JavaScript or TypeScript projects. It helps to reduce boilerplate code and improve development efficiency by eliminating the need to manually import frequently used modules.

What are unplugin-auto-import's main functionalities?

Automatic Import of Functions

Automatically imports functions from specified libraries (e.g., Vue and Vue Router) without needing to manually import them in each file.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')({
      imports: ['vue', 'vue-router'],
    }),
  ],
};

Custom Imports

Allows you to specify custom imports from libraries like Lodash, so you can use functions like debounce and throttle without manual imports.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')({
      imports: [
        {
          'lodash': [
            'debounce',
            'throttle'
          ]
        }
      ],
    }),
  ],
};

TypeScript Support

Generates TypeScript declaration files for the auto-imported modules, ensuring type safety and better development experience.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')({
      dts: true,
    }),
  ],
};

ESLint Integration

Integrates with ESLint to ensure that auto-imported modules are recognized and do not trigger linting errors.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')({
      eslintrc: {
        enabled: true,
      },
    }),
  ],
};

Other packages similar to unplugin-auto-import

babel-plugin-auto-import

babel-plugin-auto-import is a Babel plugin that automatically imports specified modules when they are used in your code. It is similar to unplugin-auto-import but is specifically designed to work with Babel, making it a good choice for projects that already use Babel for transpilation.

eslint-plugin-import

eslint-plugin-import is an ESLint plugin that helps manage and validate import statements in your code. While it does not automatically import modules, it provides rules to ensure that imports are correctly used and can help prevent common issues related to imports.

README

unplugin-auto-import

Auto import APIs on-demand for Vite, Webpack, Rollup and esbuild. With TypeScript support. Powered by unplugin.

---

without

import { computed, ref } from 'vue'
const count = ref(0)
const doubled = computed(() => count.value * 2)

with

const count = ref(0)
const doubled = computed(() => count.value * 2)

---

without

import { useState } from 'react'
export function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <div>{ count }</div>
}

with

export function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <div>{ count }</div>
}

Install

npm i -D unplugin-auto-import

Vite

// vite.config.ts
import AutoImport from 'unplugin-auto-import/vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    AutoImport({ /* options */ }),
  ],
})

Example: playground/

Rollup

// rollup.config.js
import AutoImport from 'unplugin-auto-import/rollup'

export default {
  plugins: [
    AutoImport({ /* options */ }),
    // other plugins
  ],
}

Webpack

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  /* ... */
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')({ /* options */ }),
  ],
}

Nuxt

You don't need this plugin for Nuxt, it's already builtin.

Vue CLI

// vue.config.js
module.exports = {
  configureWebpack: {
    plugins: [
      require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')({ /* options */ }),
    ],
  },
}

Quasar

// quasar.conf.js
const AutoImportPlugin = require('unplugin-auto-import/webpack')

module.exports = {
  build: {
    chainWebpack(chain) {
      chain.plugin('unplugin-auto-import').use(
        AutoImportPlugin({ /* options */ }),
      )
    },
  },
}

esbuild

// esbuild.config.js
import { build } from 'esbuild'

build({
  /* ... */
  plugins: [
    require('unplugin-auto-import/esbuild')({
      /* options */
    }),
  ],
})

Configuration

AutoImport({
  // targets to transform
  include: [
    /\.[tj]sx?$/, // .ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx
    /\.vue$/, /\.vue\?vue/, // .vue
    /\.md$/, // .md
  ],

  // global imports to register
  imports: [
    // presets
    'vue',
    'vue-router',
    // custom
    {
      '@vueuse/core': [
        // named imports
        'useMouse', // import { useMouse } from '@vueuse/core',
        // alias
        ['useFetch', 'useMyFetch'], // import { useFetch as useMyFetch } from '@vueuse/core',
      ],
      'axios': [
        // default imports
        ['default', 'axios'], // import { default as axios } from 'axios',
      ],
      '[package-name]': [
        '[import-names]',
        // alias
        ['[from]', '[alias]'],
      ],
    },
  ],

  // Auto import for all module exports under directories
  dirs: [
    // './hooks',
    // './composables'
    // ...
  ],

  // Filepath to generate corresponding .d.ts file.
  // Defaults to './auto-imports.d.ts' when `typescript` is installed locally.
  // Set `false` to disable.
  dts: './auto-imports.d.ts',

  // Auto import inside Vue template
  // see https://github.com/unjs/unimport/pull/15 and https://github.com/unjs/unimport/pull/72
  vueTemplate: false,

  // Custom resolvers, compatible with `unplugin-vue-components`
  // see https://github.com/antfu/unplugin-auto-import/pull/23/
  resolvers: [
    /* ... */
  ],

  // Generate corresponding .eslintrc-auto-import.json file.
  // eslint globals Docs - https://eslint.org/docs/user-guide/configuring/language-options#specifying-globals
  eslintrc: {
    enabled: false, // Default `false`
    filepath: './.eslintrc-auto-import.json', // Default `./.eslintrc-auto-import.json`
    globalsPropValue: true, // Default `true`, (true | false | 'readonly' | 'readable' | 'writable' | 'writeable')
  },
})

Refer to the type definitions for more options.

Presets

See src/presets.

TypeScript

In order to properly hint types for auto-imported APIs

Enable options.dts so that auto-imports.d.ts file is automatically generated Make sure auto-imports.d.ts is not excluded in tsconfig.json

AutoImport({ dts: true // or a custom path })

ESLint

💡 When using TypeScript, we recommend to disable no-undef rule directly as TypeScript already check for them and you don't need to worry about this.

If you have encountered ESLint error of no-undef:

Enable eslintrc.enabled

AutoImport({ eslintrc: { enabled: true, // <-- this }, })

Update your eslintrc: Extending Configuration Files

// .eslintrc.js module.exports = { extends: [ './.eslintrc-auto-import.json', ], }

FAQ

Compare to unimport

From v0.8.0, unplugin-auto-import uses unimport underneath. unimport is designed to be a lower level tool (it also powered Nuxt's auto import). You can think unplugin-auto-import is a wrapper of it that provides more user-friendly config APIs and capability like resolvers. Development of new features will mostly happend in unimport from now.

Compare to vue-global-api

You can think of this plugin as a successor to vue-global-api, but offering much more flexibility and bindings with libraries other than Vue (e.g. React).

Pros

• Flexible and customizable
• Tree-shakable (on-demand transforming)
• No global population

Cons

• Relying on build tools integrations (while vue-global-api is pure runtime) - but hey, we have supported quite a few of them already!

Sponsors

License

MIT License © 2021 Anthony Fu