Its not so long ago that @node-saml/node-saml and @node-saml/passport-saml projects moved types from devDependencies to dependencies. Rationale for that can be read from these PRs:

• Move dependency types next to dependencies #73
• Move TypeScript-required types to dependencies from devDependencies passport-saml#686
  • see discussion from this: [BUG] 3.0.0 typescript compiler: Could not find a declaration file for module 'passport-strategy' passport-saml#606

@Kakulukian your PR would take opposite direction and it seems that your direction would be against Typescript recommendations.

@cjbarth I wonder why @types/passport is listed at dependencies at all (normal or sev) because @node-saml/node-saml was supposed to be library without dependencies to any specific authentication frameworks / JS web frameworks. I.e. it was supposed to contain only SAML message processing / generation code utilized by e.g. @node-saml/passport-saml.

Maybe this PR could be changed so that @types/passport is removed and those types which were earlier moved from devDependencies to dependencies (by earlier mentioned PR) stay there (instead of moving all of them back to devDependencies)?

Superseded by #296