ArkType Has a Free API — TypeScript Validation That's 100x Faster Than Zod

#arktype #typescript #validation #javascript

TL;DR

ArkType is a TypeScript validation library that uses type syntax you already know. It's 100x faster than Zod at runtime and provides the best type inference in the ecosystem.

What Is ArkType?

ArkType brings TypeScript types to runtime:

TypeScript syntax — write validators using familiar type notation
100x faster than Zod — optimized compilation
Best-in-class inference — types inferred from your definitions
Morphs — transform data during validation
Composable — combine types with |, &, and generics
Free — MIT license

Quick Start

npm install arktype

import { type } from "arktype";

// Define a type using TypeScript-like syntax
const user = type({
  name: "string",
  email: "string.email",
  age: "number.integer >= 0",
  role: "'admin' | 'user' | 'moderator'",
});

// Validate data
const result = user({ name: "Alice", email: "alice@example.com", age: 30, role: "admin" });

if (result instanceof type.errors) {
  console.log(result.summary); // Human-readable error
} else {
  console.log(result); // Validated data with correct types
}

Type Syntax

import { type } from "arktype";

// Primitives
const str = type("string");
const num = type("number");
const bool = type("boolean");

// Constrained types
const positiveInt = type("number.integer > 0");
const email = type("string.email");
const url = type("string.url");
const uuid = type("string.uuid");

// Arrays
const strings = type("string[]");
const numbers = type("number[] >= 1"); // non-empty array

// Unions and intersections (like TypeScript!)
const stringOrNumber = type("string | number");
const nameAndAge = type({ name: "string" }).and({ age: "number" });

// Tuples
const pair = type(["string", "number"]);

// Optional properties
const config = type({
  host: "string",
  "port?": "number",
  "ssl?": "boolean",
});

Complex Objects

const createUserInput = type({
  name: "1 < string < 100",        // string between 1-100 chars
  email: "string.email",
  age: "number.integer >= 13",
  bio: "string <= 500 | undefined", // optional, max 500 chars
  tags: "string[] <= 10",           // max 10 tags
  address: {
    street: "string",
    city: "string",
    zip: "/^\\d{5}$/",             // regex validation
    country: "'US' | 'CA' | 'UK'",
  },
});

// TypeScript type is automatically inferred!
type CreateUserInput = typeof createUserInput.infer;

Morphs (Transform During Validation)

const parseDate = type("string").pipe((s) => new Date(s));
const parsedDate = parseDate("2024-01-15"); // Date object

const toLowerCase = type("string").pipe((s) => s.toLowerCase());
const trimAndLower = type("string")
  .pipe((s) => s.trim())
  .pipe((s) => s.toLowerCase());

const parseJson = type("string").pipe((s) => JSON.parse(s));

Speed Comparison

Library	Operations/sec	Relative
ArkType	10,000,000	100x
TypeBox	8,000,000	80x
Zod	100,000	1x
Yup	50,000	0.5x
io-ts	200,000	2x

ArkType vs Zod

Feature	ArkType	Zod
Syntax	TypeScript-like	Method chaining
Speed	100x faster	Baseline
Bundle size	~5 KB	~14 KB
Type inference	Native	Generated
Morphs/transforms	Built-in	.transform()
Error messages	Excellent	Good
Ecosystem	Growing	Large
Maturity	Newer	Established

Resources

Validating scraped web data? My Apify tools extract structured data — validate it with ArkType for type-safe, blazing-fast processing. Questions? Email spinov001@gmail.com

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