TypeScript was very slow in this repo - worst when editing files in test/, and for ESLint (which runs TypeScript). This PR makes it a lot faster with a few small, type-only changes.

Why it was slow

Two simple root causes:

1. A few core field helpers and config types made TypeScript build huge piles of throwaway types over and over. The Field config types are big and self-referencing, and these helpers/types kept rebuilding them. A handful of one-line type changes stop that.
2. Every test folder loaded the entire test/ folder instead of its own files. Each test/<suite>/tsconfig.json only said extends, which made it pull in all ~1,600 test files (plus 87 clashing type declarations) every time you opened one test file.

What changed (4 small fixes)

1. Field helper functions (fieldAffectsData and ~8 siblings, used in 100+ places): they narrowed a type by combining it with a big list of field types, which made TypeScript build hundreds of throwaway types on every call. Changed them to pick from the types that already exist instead. Same result, almost no new types created.
2. Dashboard widgets type: the sanitized config ran the whole (big, recursive) field type through the DeepRequired helper, rebuilding it from scratch.
3. Import-map helper (hasKey): same "combine with a big type" problem. Removed it (callers didn't need it and it's internal-only)
4. Test folder tsconfigs: gave each test/<suite>/tsconfig.json its own file list so it only loads its own folder, not all of test/.

Benchmarks

Per package (tsc --noEmit, each package's own code)

pnpm exec tsc -b packages/payload && pnpm exec tsc -p packages/payload/tsconfig.json --noEmit --extendedDiagnostics

The big wins (payload, next, ui) are the packages that use the field types heavily.

Whole monorepo build

pnpm bf

Test packages

Single-file: ~17× faster, ~7× less memory, ~4× fewer types.

Editor latency (real tsserver - open a file, time until errors show)

• To see the specific tasks where the Asana app for GitHub is being used, see below:
  • https://app.asana.com/0/0/1215241585135159