ts-protoc-gen

ts-protoc-gen

This examples shows how to use the proto compiler, ts-protoc-gen & @grpc/grpc-js to build a fully typed gRPC CLI application that runs on Node.js.

The proto compiler and ts-protoc-gen compiler plugin are used to generate JavaScript & TypeScript files from the proto definitions.

google-protobuf & @grpc/grpc-js are used at runtime.

App layout

• package.json - Dependencies and node build scripts
• compile-proto.sh - The proto compiler script
• proto/ - Protobuf definitions and generated types
• server.ts - The grpc server
• client.ts - The grpc client

Generating the Types

Install dependencies:

npm install

# Apple M1 users should install for x64 due to grpc-tools not supporting arm64
npm install --target_arch=x64

Use proto compiler and ts-protoc-gen to generate the TypeScript files:

./compile-proto.sh

This is aliased as a npm script:

npm run build:proto

Running the App

This simple app demonstrates the different gRPC calls you can perform.

First generate the types and build the application files:

npm run build

Start the server:

npm run start:server

Now run the client by specifying which example you want to run:

npm run start:client -- --unary
npm run start:client -- --server-streaming
npm run start:client -- --client-streaming
npm run start:client -- --bidi-streaming