Flow using directory "flow-typed" even though I've configured another [lib] value in .flowconfig

Question

My .flowconfig file specifies an alternative lib directory named decls:

$ cat .flowconfig  | grep -A1 libs
[libs]
    decls/

… and I have verified that declarations are indeed picked up from there.

Yet, the presence of a flow-typed directory created with flow-typed causes Flow to pick up its definitions from the flow-typed directory instead.

I am using flow-bin version 0.27.0.

Reading the main Flow documentation I found no reference to any special handling with respect to the flow-typed directory. The only reference to its special status is given in the the third party documentation page for flow-typed where the wording clearly states that a different directory can be used by changing the lib configuration in .flowconfig:

If you need to customize the directory where libdefs are stored in your project, you can do so by adding a [libs] configuration to your .flowconfig file:

Is the behaviour I am observing a bug or is it a feature that Flow will always use directory flow-typed (if it exists) regardless of the [lib] setting in .flowconfig ?

Answer 1

First, it's worth noting that Flow v0.27 is pretty old. I recommend upgrading.

This function contains the special handling for flow-typed. Library locations specified under libs are used in addition to the flow-typed folder, not instead of it. It sounds like you're describing intended behavior.

Why do you want to force Flow to ignore the flow-typed folder? Why bother having the flow-typed folder at all if you want to ignore it?