microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Toggling `isolatedModules` in `tsconfig.json` while running the compiler in `watch` mode, doesn't re-emit `const enums`, unlike toggling `preserveConstEnums`, which does

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#63,223 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Bug Domain: flag: isolatedDeclarations
Dominant language
Go
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Description

### 🔎 Search Terms

isolatedModules enums not re-emitted on watch mode

### 🕗 Version & Regression Information

Tested on `6.0.1-rc` and `6.0.0-dev.20260309`

I didn't research if this is a regression or not. It may have always been like this but never reported.

### ⏯ Playground Link

_No response_

### 💻 Code

```ts
const enum TestEnum {
a = 1,
b = 3,
c = 5,
}

const x = TestEnum.b
```

### 🙁 Actual behavior

Toggling `isolatedModules` doesn't change the emitted code when running `tsc` in `watch` mode. However, if the compilation is redone, it does re-emit correctly.

### 🙂 Expected behavior

Should modify the emitted code for `const enums` when the option is changed on `watch` mode, since it does change when re-compiling from scratch.

### Additional information about the issue

For comparison, toggling `preserveConstEnums` in `tsconfig.json` does correctly modify the emitted code in `watch` mode.

Clarification: the issue occurs when `preserveConstEnums` is not defined at all in `tsconfig.json`, so the emit behavior for `const enum`s is implicit from it.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Reproduce the provided const enum example with tsc in watch mode, first toggling isolatedModules and then preserveConstEnums in tsconfig.json. Compare the emitted output with a fresh compilation, then trace the watch-mode configuration and emit invalidation paths. Done means changing isolatedModules causes const enums to be re-emitted without requiring a full restart.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
build-system, compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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