Running Flow code

Since types are not part of the JavaScript specification, we need to strip them out before sending the file to the user. We recommend using Babel to do this.

For integration with various other tools and build systems, check out this really thorough set of docs detailing how to set up Babel to work with various popular tools like Browserify, Broccoli, Webpack, Node.js, etc.

Babel Quick Start#

First, install the Babel CLI:

$> npm install -g babel-cli

Next, install the Flow transform and add a .babelrc file to the root of your project to tell Babel to strip Flow annotations:

$> cd /path/to/my/project
$> mkdir -p node_modules && npm install babel-plugin-transform-flow-strip-types
$> echo '{"plugins": ["transform-flow-strip-types"]}' > .babelrc

You can now simply run the transpiler in the background using the babel command:

$> babel --watch=./src --out-dir=./build

This will run in the background, pick up any changes to files in src/, and create their pure JavaScript version in build/.

For more detailed documentation on the babel CLI utility, check out its docs.

flow-remove-types Quick Start#

While Babel is the recommended way of running Flow code, flow-remove-types is a limited but simpler alternative.

First, install flow-remove-types:

$> npm install -g flow-remove-types

Then run your code through to remove the types, creating a pure JavaScript version in build/.

$> flow-remove-types src/ --out-dir build/

Or run the code directly by substituting flow-node for node.

$> flow-node main.js

For more detailed documentation on flow-remove-types, check out its docs.

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