Lecture Notes: tRPC Overview

Introduction to tRPC

• Purpose: Simplifies building & consuming typesafe APIs without schemas or code generation.
• Trend: Increasing use of TypeScript and static typing in web development.
• Problem Addressed: Statically typing API endpoints and sharing types between client and server.
• Solution: A library that utilizes TypeScript for building typesafe APIs.

Alternative to REST or GraphQL

• Current Dominance: GraphQL is prevalent for implementing typesafe APIs in TypeScript.
• Limitation of GraphQL: It's language-agnostic and does not fully leverage TypeScript's capabilities.
• Advantage of tRPC for TypeScript Projects: Direct type sharing between client and server without code generation.

Target Audience for tRPC

• Who: Full-stack developers using TypeScript.
• Benefits: Facilitates writing endpoints usable in both frontend and backend.
• Error Handling: Catches type errors at build time, reducing runtime bugs.

Key Features of tRPC

• Testing & Readiness: Well-tested and ready for production.
• Typesafety & Autocompletion: Complete typesafety and autocompletion for client-side inputs, outputs, and errors.
• Developer Experience (DX):
  • No need for code generation or additional run-time processes.
  • Minimal build pipeline requirements.
• Lightweight: Zero dependencies and a small client-side footprint.
• Flexibility:
  • Suitable for new projects and easy integration into existing (brownfield) projects.
  • Framework agnostic with community-built adapters for popular frameworks.
• Additional Features:
  • Supports subscriptions for typesafe observability.
  • Request batching to combine concurrent requests.

Learning and Examples

• Example Applications: Resources available for learning and application starting points.