POC: overwrite.removeStaleFiles ignored for server preset (upstream @graphql-codegen/cli bug)

[eddeee888]

The issue

The server preset hard-codes overwrite.removeStaleFiles: false (packages/typescript-resolver-files/src/defineConfig.ts) so that watch mode doesn't delete resolver files. That setting never takes effect.

The cause is in @graphql-codegen/cli@7.3.1, generate-and-save.js:

function normalizeOverwriteConfig(config, outputPath) {
  const overwrite = (function getOverwriteOption() {
    const { overwrite: result = true } = config;
    const outputConfig = config.generates[outputPath];   // outputPath = a generated FILE's path
    if (!outputConfig) {
      debugLog(`Couldn't find a config of ${outputPath}`);
      return result;                                      // <- always taken for presets
    }
    if (isConfiguredOutput(outputConfig) && outputConfig.overwrite !== undefined) {
      return outputConfig.overwrite;
    }
    return result;
  })();
  ...
}

function isConfiguredOutput(output) {
  return typeof output.plugins !== 'undefined';
}

Two separate assumptions break for a preset-based output:

1. The lookup key is wrong. It's called as normalizeOverwriteConfig(config, filename) for each generated file, but a preset's generates entry is keyed by its baseOutputDir. No generates key ever equals the path of a file the preset emitted, so the lookup always misses.
2. isConfiguredOutput requires plugins. Even on a hit, a preset entry has no plugins key — the preset supplies plugins internally — so it isn't recognised as a configured output.

Both paths return result, the global config.overwrite, which defaults to true → removeStaleFiles: true. In watch mode that deletes the very resolver files the preset's false was meant to protect.

updateExistingFiles: true is dropped identically; it just happens to match the fallback default, so only removeStaleFiles is observable.

For the record, overwrite.checkStaleFiles is not a real option at all — NormalizedOverwriteOption in @graphql-codegen/plugin-helpers has exactly removeStaleFiles and updateExistingFiles. And this is not something @eddeee888/gcg-server-config can influence: it produces plugin config, while overwrite is an output-level field.

The patch

patches/@graphql-codegen__cli@7.3.1.patch, applied via pnpm patch / patchedDependencies.

codegen.js already copies hooks from the output config onto every generated file. Its process function has both the generates key and the per-file path in scope, so overwrite can ride along the same way:

result.push({
  filename: outputArgs.filename,
  content: output,
  hooks: outputConfig.hooks || {},
  overwrite: outputConfig.overwrite,   // new
});

normalizeOverwriteConfig then reads the file's own value and needs no lookup:

const overwrite = fileOutput.overwrite ?? config.overwrite ?? true;

That deletes the config.generates lookup and isConfiguredOutput entirely — the function gets smaller, and both failure modes above disappear at once. removeStaleFiles retains the previous run's { filename, overwrite } pairs so a file that disappears is still judged by the entry that produced it.

Matching generates keys by path-prefix was considered and rejected: besides being guesswork, it's wrong. A preset can emit files that aren't under its baseOutputDir at all — the server preset does, e.g. resolvers/User.ts — and those would still have missed. Tagging at the source has no such failure mode.

Tests are in packages/typescript-resolver-files/src/defineConfig.staleFilesCliBug.spec.ts: one drives the public executeCodegen API and asserts every file a preset emits carries the entry's overwrite; three cover normalizeOverwriteConfig's resolution rules (file value wins, global fallback, boolean shorthand). The propagation test uses a stub preset shaped like the server preset — directory-keyed entry, no plugins key, one emitted path deliberately outside the base dir — so it stays independent of the server preset's internals. All four fail against the unpatched dependency and pass against the patched one; the full suite is green at 129 tests.

This is a PoC — the real fix goes upstream

A pnpm patch only affects this repo's own node_modules. It does not reach consumers of @eddeee888/gcg-typescript-resolver-files, whose own @graphql-codegen/cli install is untouched. This branch exists to pin down the root cause and prove the fix works end to end.

The fix belongs in graphql-code-generator/graphql-code-generator and needs to ship in a new @graphql-codegen/cli release before users benefit. When upstreaming, Types.FileOutput lives in @graphql-codegen/plugin-helpers and will need an optional overwrite?: boolean | Partial<NormalizedOverwriteOption> field — not patched here, since this PoC only changes the CLI's runtime JS.

Draft until we decide whether to keep the patch as an interim measure or go straight upstream.

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