Mock dependency in Jest with TypeScript

You can use type casting and your test.ts should look like this:

import * as dep from '../dependency';
jest.mock('../dependency');

const mockedDependency = <jest.Mock<typeof dep.default>>dep.default;

it('should do what I need', () => {
  //this throws ts error
  // Property mockReturnValueOnce does not exist on type (name: string)....
  mockedDependency.mockReturnValueOnce('return');
});

TS transpiler is not aware that jest.mock('../dependency'); changes type of dep thus you have to use type casting. As imported dep is not a type definition you have to get its type with typeof dep.default.

Here are some other useful patterns I’ve found during my work with Jest and TS

When imported element is a class then you don’t have to use typeof for example:

import { SomeClass } from './SomeClass';

jest.mock('./SomeClass');

const mockedClass = <jest.Mock<SomeClass>>SomeClass;

This solution is also useful when you have to mock some node native modules:

import { existsSync } from 'fs';

jest.mock('fs');

const mockedExistsSync = <jest.Mock<typeof existsSync>>existsSync;

In case you don’t want to use jest automatic mock and prefer create manual one

import TestedClass from './TestedClass';
import TestedClassDependency from './TestedClassDependency';

const testedClassDependencyMock = jest.fn<TestedClassDependency>(() => ({
  // implementation
}));

it('Should throw an error when calling playSomethingCool', () => {
  const testedClass = new TestedClass(testedClassDependencyMock());
});

testedClassDependencyMock() creates mocked object instance
TestedClassDependency can be either class or type or interface