# Packages required to get Emacs "typescript-ts-mode" to work
**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [August 2, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225 "2023-08-02T20:33:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@seh](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/seh)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/1 "2023-08-02T20:33:41Z")
I’m using Emacs version 29.1 on macOS, installed by way of Home Manager, with the package overridden to “emacs29”. Within Emacs, if I visit a TypeScript file in a buffer and invoke `typescript-ts-mode`, Emacs presents a “_Warnings_” buffer with the following complaints:
> ⛔ Warning (treesit): Cannot activate tree-sitter, because language grammar for typescript is unavailable (not-found): (libtree-sitter-typescript.so libtree-sitter-typescript.so.0 libtree-sitter-typescript.so.0.0 libtree-sitter-typescript.dylib libtree-sitter-typescript.dylib.0 libtree-sitter-typescript.dylib.0.0) No such file or directory
> ⛔ Warning (treesit): Cannot activate tree-sitter, because language grammar for tsx is unavailable (not-found): (libtree-sitter-tsx.so libtree-sitter-tsx.so.0 libtree-sitter-tsx.so.0.0 libtree-sitter-tsx.dylib libtree-sitter-tsx.dylib.0 libtree-sitter-tsx.dylib.0.0) No such file or directory
> ⛔ Warning (treesit): Cannot activate tree-sitter, because language grammar for typescript is unavailable (not-found): (libtree-sitter-typescript.so libtree-sitter-typescript.so.0 libtree-sitter-typescript.so.0.0 libtree-sitter-typescript.dylib libtree-sitter-typescript.dylib.0 libtree-sitter-typescript.dylib.0.0) No such file or directory
Clearly more things need to be installed. However, searching for Nix packages related to _tree-sitter_, Emacs, and TypeScript yield many hits, and it’s not clear which of them overlap and are pertinent to this problem. Here are a few candidates that _sound_ related:
- `tree-sitter`
- `tree-sitter-grammars.tree-sitter-tsx`
- `tree-sitter-grammars.tree-sitter-typescript`
- `emacsPackages.tree-sitter`
- `emacsPackages.tree-sitter-langs`
This last package’s source code mentions dealing with file names ending with “dylib” on macOS, so that might address the missing files mentioned in the error messages above.
Can anyone share a working recipe for some use of these packages—or any others I didn’t find—that allow proper syntax-based highlighting to work within Emacs?
---
### Author:  [@rmourey26](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/rmourey26)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2023, 1:44am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/2 "2023-08-03T01:44:09Z")
Seems typescript-language-server and LSP mode for EMACS may be worth a look
> **[LSP Mode - Language Server Protocol support for Emacs - LSP Mode - LSP...](https://emacs-lsp.github.io)**
>
> Language Server Protocol support with multiples languages support for Emacs
---
### Author:  [@seh](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/seh)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2023, 12:23pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/3 "2023-08-03T12:23:38Z")
Thank you. I do have both of those installed already.
At present, the `treesit-language-source-alist` variable remains empty. I thought that there would be some Nix package that would populate it with entries automatically. So far I have not figured out which—if any—package takes care of that.
Without that populated, I can’t invoke the `treesit-install-language-grammar` function. That function downloads and builds the grammar source. Similarly, I thought that there might be a Nix package that would include those artifacts.
---
### Author:  [@rmourey26](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/rmourey26)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/4 "2023-08-03T18:13:13Z")
You’re welcome. And thank you for the additional details.
While troubleshooting, did you consider if the issue was possibly related to overriding 29.1 to 29?
I happened to come across this repo which, at a quick glance, seems like it could point you in the right direction
> **[GitHub - renzmann/treesit-auto: Automatic installation, usage, and fallback...](https://github.com/renzmann/treesit-auto)**
>
> Automatic installation, usage, and fallback for tree-sitter major modes in Emacs 29 - GitHub - renzmann/treesit-auto: Automatic installation, usage, and fallback for tree-sitter major modes in Emac...
---
### Author:  [@seh](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/seh)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/5 "2023-08-03T19:21:29Z")
Oh, I’m sorry about mentioning the overriding part. I meant to say that I’m winding up with Emacs version 29.1 by way of using the “emacs29” Nix package.
Regardless, I’ll study that Emacs package that you mentioned to see if it may help.
---
### Author:  [@rmourey26](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/rmourey26)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/6 "2023-08-07T17:10:58Z")
No worries! I understand what you’re saying now.
If you run an ‘ls l’ on the .so file paths in question what do you see?
This may help as well
[https://www.heinrichhartmann.com/posts/2021-08-08-nix-emacs/](https://www.heinrichhartmann.com/posts/2021-08-08-nix-emacs/)
---
### Author:  [@leungbk](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/leungbk)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/7 "2023-08-08T02:47:07Z")
This question comes up somewhat often since we’re too lazy to update the documentation.
The short answer is that you can get by with installing only the Emacs package `emacsPackages.treesit-grammars.with-all-grammars`. Here’s an example:
[https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay/issues/341](https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay/issues/341)
You definitely should NOT install the external `emacsPackages.tree-sitter` unless you really know what you’re doing. This last package exposes a minor mode unrelated to the major mode `typescript-ts-mode` that is included in base Emacs.
---
### Author:  [@seh](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/seh)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/8 "2023-08-09T16:10:12Z")
Thank you. I’m unable to find this `emacsPackages.treesit-grammars` package [in the NixOS package search site](https://search.nixos.org/packages?type=packages&query=emacsPackages.treesit-grammars). Are you sure about that name?
---
### Author:  [@leungbk](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/leungbk)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2023, 7:23pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/9 "2023-08-09T19:23:29Z")
It’s this package: [https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/blob/cd6d4800edca7c9765f40a4416569911d7952b30/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/manual-packages/treesit-grammars/default.nix](https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/blob/cd6d4800edca7c9765f40a4416569911d7952b30/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/elisp-packages/manual-packages/treesit-grammars/default.nix)
`emacsPackages` isn’t actually part of the name. An example usage is here:
[https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay/issues/341#issuecomment-1605290875](https://github.com/nix-community/emacs-overlay/issues/341#issuecomment-1605290875)
You will likely need to change it to look something like
```nix
let
myEmacs = (emacsPackagesFor emacs).emacsWithPackages (epkgs: with epkgs; [
vterm
treesit-grammars.with-all-grammars
];
```
if you’re not using the emacs-overlay.
---
### Author:  [@seh](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/seh)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/10 "2023-08-09T22:02:34Z")
Oh, I see. Thank you for pointing to the source. I tried it, and it works, addressing my original concern.
While there, though, I noticed that with no other configuration Emacs doesn’t know that a file with an extension of “.tsx” should use a TypeScript-related mode. Which package do you recommend installing and activating to get that entry into the file mode alist?
---
### Author:  [@leungbk](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/leungbk)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/11 "2023-08-09T23:02:36Z")
You can add it manually in your Emacs config, it doesn’t need to be done with a package. Try this:
```plaintext
(use-package typescript-ts-mode
:mode (("\\.ts\\'" . typescript-ts-mode)
("\\.tsx\\'" . tsx-ts-mode)))
```
Funny enough, the upstream guys deliberately don’t `autoload` the `auto-mode-alist` updates for the `treesit`-based major modes; I am guessing this is because they don’t want to step on the toes of the existing non-`treesit`-based major modes for which `treesit`-based variants now exist. Contrast this
[https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/lisp/progmodes/typescript-ts-mode.el?h=cc0a30a876adffa5ec110df9f4e0f21097f6d73e#n539](https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/lisp/progmodes/typescript-ts-mode.el?h=cc0a30a876adffa5ec110df9f4e0f21097f6d73e#n539)
with
[https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/lisp/progmodes/ruby-mode.el?h=cc0a30a876adffa5ec110df9f4e0f21097f6d73e#n2697](https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/lisp/progmodes/ruby-mode.el?h=cc0a30a876adffa5ec110df9f4e0f21097f6d73e#n2697)
The latter `autoload`s the `auto-mode-alist` update, thereby updating `auto-mode-alist` as expected for the non-`treesit`-based `ruby-mode`.
---
### Author:  [@seh](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/seh)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 2:19pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/12 "2023-08-12T14:19:10Z")
I decided to also install the `emacsPackages.treesit-auto` package for now, anticipating that it may no longer be necessary once we can use Emacs version 30 and later.
With this configuration, the _treesit-auto_ package takes care of borrowing the `auto-mode-alist` entries from the sibling non-_treesit_ modes.
```auto
(use-package treesit-auto
:config
(global-treesit-auto-mode))
(use-package typescript-ts-mode
:hook (typescript-ts-base-mode . (lambda ()
(setq js-indent-level 2)
(electric-pair-local-mode)
(lsp-deferred)
(lsp-lens-mode)
(dolist (h '(lsp-format-buffer
lsp-organize-imports))
(add-hook 'before-save-hook h nil t)))))
```
---
### Author:  [@nohzafk](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/nohzafk)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/packages-required-to-get-emacs-typescript-ts-mode-to-work/31225/13 "2023-12-18T03:37:03Z")
I also use MacOS and Emacs29 can’t find those library files even I use treesit-grammars.with-all-grammars, which is created by `pkgs.linkFarm "emacs-treesit-grammars"`
I figure out a way to fix the problem
```auto
let
buildEmacs = (pkgs.emacsPackagesFor pkgs.emacs29-macport).emacsWithPackages;
treesitGrammars =
(pkgs.emacsPackagesFor pkgs.emacs29-macport).treesit-grammars.with-all-grammars;
emacs = buildEmacs (epkgs: with epkgs; [vterm treesitGrammars]);
in {
home.packages = [emacs];
home.file = {
# tree-sitter subdirectory of the directory specified by user-emacs-directory
".config/emacs/.local/cache/tree-sitter".source =
"${emacs29.treesitGrammars}/lib";
};
}
```
you can read the details in [Integrating Tree-Sitter with Emacs29 in nix-darwin | Away From Keyboard](https://nohzafk.github.io/posts/2023-12-18-nix-emacs-treesit-grammars/)