🌌 PixInsight V8 TypeScript Starter Template

An authoritative, production-ready TypeScript development starter template and comprehensive type declaration library (pjsr.d.ts) for PixInsight 1.9.4+ (Google V8 ECMAScript Engine).

Write modern, type-safe astrophotography scripts with full IntelliSense, autocomplete, parameter checking, and inline JSDoc documentation inside VS Code or WebStorm, and compile directly into PixInsight V8-ready .js files.

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Tip

📢 Requesting 3rd-Party Processes

Don't see a commercial or community PixInsight process you use (e.g. BlurXTerminator, StarNet2, GraXpert, MARS, GHS, etc.)? Simply open an Issue on GitHub requesting the process name, and I will install/dump it into the live environment and publish updated type definitions!

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🔍 Build Verification & Provenance

This definition release was extracted directly from live runtime introspection of PixInsight:

Parameter	Dumped Runtime Specification
PixInsight Release	PixInsight Core 1.9.4 Lockhart (Build 1628)
PCL Core Version	2.4.4.614
V8 Engine Version	Google V8 11.8.172.18
Host System	Windows 11 (x64)
Executable SHA-256	58c332e74888bd585e0003a33adb7ff89711669beab6c8f0576334e48b1a0af8
TypeScript Version	v7.0.2
Last Dumped	2026-08-27 17:45 UTC

Note

You can verify your local PixInsight.exe binary against the SHA-256 checksum above in PowerShell:

Get-FileHash "C:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe" -Algorithm SHA256

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✨ Features

• Authoritative PJSR Type Definitions (types/pjsr.d.ts):

  • 145 Core & UI Classes: Image, ImageWindow, View, Matrix, Vector, Dialog, Control, PushButton, VerticalSizer, MessageBox, Graphics, Font, Bitmap, File, Timer, XMLDocument, etc.
  • Inheritance Hierarchies: Fully typed class inheritance (Dialog extends Control, VerticalSizer extends Sizer, PushButton extends Control, Matrix extends Array, Vector extends Float64Array).
  • 78 Enums with Exact Live Integer Values: ColorSpace, DataType, KeyModifier, UndoFlag, StdIcon, StdButton, PixelSampleType, ResizeMode, etc.
  • 32 Installed 3rd-Party & Native Processes: Strongly typed declarations for StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, PixelMath, MultiscaleLinearTransform, HistogramTransformation, CurvesTransformation, StarNet2, SCNR, etc.
  • 132+ Static Properties & 539+ Static Methods: ImageWindow.activeWindow, ImageWindow.open(), File.readTextFile(), Matrix.inverse(), etc.
  • 8,877 Lines of Declarations: Full JSDoc documentation, signatures, and parameter typing.

• Modular Multi-File Architecture Support:

  • Write clean, split-up codebase using standard TypeScript import { ... } from './lib/...' and export.
  • Built-in fast bundler automatically inlines and bundles all library dependencies from src/lib/ into self-contained standalone .js scripts in dist/.
  • Reusable out-of-the-box libraries included: src/lib/ui.ts (BaseDialog, MessageBox helpers), src/lib/astroMath.ts (ImageStatistics, Matrix Unmixing), src/lib/processHelper.ts (StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator wrappers).
  • Secure bidirectional WebView RPC and native DevTools in src/lib/webviewIpc/; see its integration guide.

• Automated PixInsight V8 Build Pipeline (scripts/build.js):

  • Automatically prepends #engine v8 to all generated .js files.
  • Automatically translates commented directives (// #feature-id ..., // #feature-icon ..., // #include ...) into valid PixInsight preprocessor directives.
  • Built-in live file watcher (npm run watch).

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Clone & Install Dependencies

git clone https://github.com/TheAmazingLooser/PixInsight_TypeScript_Definitions.git
cd PixInsight_TypeScript_Definitions
npm install

2. Build Scripts

npm run build

This bundles and compiles all TypeScript files in src/ into PixInsight-ready JavaScript files in dist/.

3. Run in PixInsight

In PixInsight, execute the compiled script via menu Script > Execute Script File... or from the PixInsight Process Console:

run "path/to/pixinsight-typescript-template/dist/ModularPipelineDemo.js"

4. Watch Mode (Live Reloading)

npm run watch

Any changes saved in src/**/*.ts will automatically recompile into dist/ instantly.

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📂 Project Structure

├── .vscode/                 # Pre-configured VS Code settings and build tasks
├── dist/                    # Compiled, bundled standalone PixInsight scripts (.js)
├── scripts/
│   └── build.js             # Automated multi-file bundler with #engine v8 header injection
├── src/                     # Your TypeScript source files (.ts)
│   ├── lib/                 # Reusable multi-file modular libraries (imported via TS)
│   │   ├── astroMath.ts     # Image statistics, matrix spectral unmixing
│   │   ├── processHelper.ts # Safe StarXTerminator & NoiseXTerminator wrappers
│   │   ├── webviewIpc/      # Tokenized WebView RPC, bootstrap lifecycle, and DevTools
│   │   └── ui.ts            # BaseDialog, styled headers, MessageBox helpers
│   ├── ModularPipelineDemo.ts # Multi-file demo importing from ./lib/*
│   ├── InteractiveDialog.ts # Example GUI Dialog application
│   ├── MyFirstScript.ts     # Minimal starter template
│   ├── WebViewIpcLibraryDemo.ts # Processing workspace and WebView IPC integration
│   └── ProcessAutomation.ts # StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator & PixelMath example
├── types/
│   └── pjsr.d.ts            # Master TypeScript declaration file (8,877 lines)
├── package.json             # NPM package scripts and configurations
├── tsconfig.json            # TypeScript compiler options targeting ES2022 / PJSR V8
└── README.md

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💡 Code Examples

1. Modular Multi-File Script (src/ModularPipelineDemo.ts)

// #engine v8
// #feature-id    ModularPipelineDemo : Development > Modular Pipeline Demo

// Import directly from your modular libraries!
import { BaseDialog, showInfo, showWarning } from './lib/ui';
import { getImageStatistics, unmixDualBandMatrix } from './lib/astroMath';
import { executeStarExtraction } from './lib/processHelper';

class SynthesizerDialog extends BaseDialog {
    constructor() {
        super("Modular Astrophotography Tool", "Built with clean multi-file libraries.");
    }

    protected override handleExecution(): void {
        const activeWin = ImageWindow.activeWindow;
        if (activeWin.isNull) {
            showWarning("No Image", "Please open an image first.");
            return;
        }

        const view = activeWin.mainView;
        const stats = getImageStatistics(view);
        Console.writeln(`Image Mean: ${stats.mean}, StdDev: ${stats.stdDev}`);

        // Matrix Unmixing & Star Removal
        unmixDualBandMatrix(view.image);
        executeStarExtraction(view);

        this.ok();
        showInfo("Done", `Processed: ${view.id}`);
    }

2. Minimal Script (src/MyFirstScript.ts)

// #engine v8
// #feature-id    MyFirstScript : Development > My First TypeScript Script

function run(): void {
    Console.show();
    Console.writeln("✦ Starting TypeScript Script in PixInsight V8...");

    const activeWin = ImageWindow.activeWindow;
    if (activeWin.isNull) {
        Console.warningln("No active image window found.");
        return;
    }

    const view = activeWin.mainView;
    const img = view.image;

    Console.writeln(`View: ${view.id} (${img.width}x${img.height}, ${img.numberOfChannels} channels)`);
}

run();

3. Process Automation (src/ProcessAutomation.ts)

// #engine v8
// #feature-id    ProcessAutomation : Development > Process Automation Example

function runPipeline(view: View): boolean {
    // 1. Star Extraction with RC-Astro StarXTerminator
    const sxt = new StarXTerminator();
    sxt.unscreen = true;
    sxt.overlap = 0.2;
    sxt.stars = true;

    if (!sxt.executeOn(view)) {
        Console.criticalln("StarXTerminator failed to execute.");
        return false;
    }

    // 2. Denoise with RC-Astro NoiseXTerminator
    const nxt = new NoiseXTerminator();
    nxt.denoise = 0.60;
    nxt.detail = 0.15;
    nxt.enable_color_separation = true;
    nxt.executeOn(view);

    // 3. PixelMath Boost
    const pm = new PixelMath();
    pm.expression = "$T * 1.05";
    pm.useSingleExpression = true;
    pm.executeOn(view);

    return true;
}

4. Modern GUI Dialog (src/InteractiveDialog.ts)

// #engine v8
// #feature-id    InteractiveDialog : Development > Interactive Dialog Example

class SampleDialog extends Dialog {
    private label: Label;
    private button: PushButton;

    constructor() {
        super();
        this.windowTitle = "My Custom Tool";

        this.label = new Label(this);
        this.label.text = "Click to execute process:";

        this.button = new PushButton(this);
        this.button.text = "Execute";
        this.button.onClick = () => {
            const activeWin = ImageWindow.activeWindow;
            if (!activeWin.isNull) {
                Console.writeln(`Processing: ${activeWin.mainView.id}`);
                this.ok();
            } else {
                new MessageBox("Please open an image first.", "Warning", StdIcon.Warning).execute();
            }
        };

        const sizer = new VerticalSizer();
        sizer.margin = 12;
        sizer.spacing = 8;
        sizer.add(this.label);
        sizer.add(this.button);

        this.sizer = sizer;
        this.adjustToContents();
    }
}

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🛠️ How to Add Preprocessor Directives

In TypeScript, preprocessor directives starting with # are commented so that the TypeScript compiler does not treat them as syntax errors. scripts/build.js automatically converts them into valid PixInsight preprocessor directives:

In your .ts file	Compiled in output .js
// #engine v8	#engine v8
// #feature-id MyTool : Cat > Tool	#feature-id MyTool : Cat > Tool
// #feature-icon @script_icons/Tool.svg	#feature-icon @script_icons/Tool.svg
// #include <pjsr/DataType.jsh>	#include <pjsr/DataType.jsh>

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use it for both open-source and commercial PixInsight script development!