meteor-rpc TypeScript Server Plugin

Enables Go to Definition (Ctrl+B / F12) on Meteor RPC method and publication names in any editor that uses the TypeScript language server (VS Code, Cursor, Neovim + tsserver, WebStorm, etc.).

When you place your cursor on a method name in a client call such as app.foo.baz(123) and trigger Go to Definition, the plugin redirects you to the matching createMethod("foo.baz", ...) or addMethod("baz", ...) call site rather than to the library types.

How it works

The plugin wraps the TypeScript language service's getDefinitionAndBoundSpan handler. When triggered on an identifier, it:

1. Resolves the identifier's type via the TypeScript type checker.
2. Checks whether the type has a config.name property holding a string literal — the shape shared by ReturnMethod<Name, ...> and ReturnSubscription<Name, ...>.
3. If found, searches all project source files for a createMethod, createMutation, createQuery, createPublication, createRealtimeQuery, createSharedRealtimeQuery, addMethod, addPublication, or addSharedPublication call whose first string argument matches that name.
4. Returns the matching call site as the definition location.

If no match is found it falls back to the default TypeScript behavior silently.

Setup

1. Install

meteor npm i meteor-rpc-ts-plugin

2. Add the plugin to your project's tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "plugins": [{ "name": "meteor-rpc-ts-plugin" }]
  }
}

The plugin is a standalone package — install it alongside meteor-rpc.

3. VS Code: switch to workspace TypeScript

VS Code uses its own bundled TypeScript by default and does not load tsconfig.json plugins until you switch to the workspace version.

1. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P).
2. Run "TypeScript: Select TypeScript Version".
3. Choose "Use Workspace Version".

This is a one-time, per-project setting stored in .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "typescript.tsdk": "node_modules/typescript/lib"
}

Other editors (Cursor, Neovim + nvim-lspconfig/tsserver, WebStorm) pick up tsconfig.json plugins automatically without any extra step.

Usage

Works with both the createModule builder API and direct createMethod calls:

// server/api.ts
const server = createModule()
  .addMethod("bar", z.string(), (arg) => "bar" as const)
  .addSubmodule(
    createModule("foo")
      .addMethod("baz", z.number(), (arg) => "baz" as const)
      .buildSubmodule()
  )
  .build();

export type Server = typeof server;

// client.ts
const app = createClient<Server>();

app.bar("str");      // Ctrl+B on `bar`  → goes to .addMethod("bar",  ...)
app.foo.baz(123);   // Ctrl+B on `baz`  → goes to .addMethod("baz",  ...)

Testing locally

The quickest way to verify the plugin is working:

1. Build the plugin (npm run build inside ts-server-plugin/).
2. In the project that uses meteor-rpc, ensure the plugins entry is in tsconfig.json and VS Code is using workspace TypeScript (see Setup).
3. Reload the TS server: open the command palette and run "TypeScript: Restart TS Server".
4. Open a client file, place the cursor on a method name (e.g. bar in app.bar(...)), and press F12 / Ctrl+B. You should land at the addMethod("bar", ...) call site on the server.

Confirming the plugin is loaded

Open the command palette and run "TypeScript: Open TS Server Log". Search the log for meteor-rpc-ts-plugin — you should see a line like:

Loading plugin meteor-rpc-ts-plugin from ...

If the line is absent, tsserver has not found the plugin. Double-check that:

• meteor-rpc-ts-plugin is installed (node_modules/meteor-rpc-ts-plugin/ exists).
• The plugins entry in tsconfig.json is under compilerOptions.
• VS Code is set to use workspace TypeScript.

Debugging

Enable verbose tsserver logging

Set the TSS_LOG environment variable before starting your editor:

# macOS / Linux
TSS_LOG="-logToFile true -file /tmp/tsserver.log -level verbose" code .

Then tail the log while reproducing the issue:

tail -f /tmp/tsserver.log | grep -i "meteor-rpc\|getDefinition"

Add temporary log lines to the plugin source

The plugin has access to the tsserver logger via info.project.projectService.logger:

info.project.projectService.logger.info(`[meteor-rpc] resolved name: ${methodName}`);

Rebuild (npm run build) and restart the TS server ("TypeScript: Restart TS Server") to pick up changes.

Inspecting the resolved type

If Go to Definition is not redirecting where expected, the most common cause is that the type checker is not resolving the type to a ReturnMethod / ReturnSubscription. Add a log line in extractMethodName to print the type string:

info.project.projectService.logger.info(
  `[meteor-rpc] type: ${checker.typeToString(type)}`
);

This will show what type the cursor position resolves to, which makes it easy to see whether the config.name path is being traversed correctly.