microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

tsserver hangs indefinitely when inferring return type of class method that passes this to a function with deeply nested conditional return type

Open
#63,207 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Bug Domain: check: Type Circularity
Dominant language
Go
Stars
111k
Forks
14.3k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

### 🔎 Search Terms

hang circular

### 🕗 Version & Regression Information

This behavior is present in TypeScript 5 and TypeScript 6 beta.

### ⏯ Playground Link

N/A — requires the remeda package (npm i remeda). Reproduction is a self-contained file below.

### 💻 Code

```ts
import { pick } from "remeda";

export class MyClass {
constructor(public readonly field: number) {}

// [bad] tsserver hangs indefinitely: no explicit return type
getIdentity() {
return pick(this, ["field"]);
}

// [good] works fine: explicit return type breaks the cycle
getIdentityFixed(): Pick {
return pick(this, ["field"]);
}
}
```

### 🙁 Actual behavior

`tsserver` becomes completely unresponsive. The editor (VS Code) loses all language service features (hover types, completions, diagnostics) until tsserver is manually restarted. No error is emitted; tsserver simply loops forever.

The cause is an undetected circular type inference chain. To infer the return type of `getIdentity()`, TypeScript must evaluate `PickFromArray` (remeda's `pick` return type). That involves `IsBoundedRecord` → `IsBounded>`. `KeysOfUnion` uses `UnionToIntersection`, which places `MyClass` in a contravariant function parameter position — forcing eager, non-deferred evaluation of the full structural type of `MyClass`. The full type of `MyClass` includes `getIdentity: () => `, whose inferred return type is what we started trying to compute. Because the cycle passes through ~5 distinct type alias instantiations, TypeScript's cycle-detection heuristics never fire, and the checker loops indefinitely instead of emitting a "circularly references itself" error.

### 🙂 Expected behavior

TypeScript should detect the circular inference and either:

- Emit a "Return type annotation circularly references itself" error (as it does for simpler cycles), or
- Fall back to any with a warning.

Either outcome is acceptable. The checker should never hang.

### Additional information about the issue

Workaround: add an explicit return type annotation to the method. This gives TypeScript the type of `MyClass.getIdentity()` upfront, preventing the cycle from forming.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by installing remeda and running the self-contained TypeScript reproduction with tsserver. Compare the hanging inferred-return case with the explicit Pick annotation, then trace circularity handling around the reported PickFromArray, IsBoundedRecord, IsBounded, KeysOfUnion, and UnionToIntersection chain. Done means tsserver no longer hangs and either reports a circular return-type error or falls back to any with a warning.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.