fix: add variance annotations to fix file-order-dependent type errors

[Faithfinder]

Summary

• Adds in out (invariant) variance annotations to TData and TValue type parameters on all mutually recursive types in the ColumnDef/Column cycle (ColumnDefBase, Column, Cell, Header, CoreColumn, CoreCell, CoreHeader, HeaderContext, CellContext, GroupingColumnDef, and related ColumnDef variants)
• Makes TableFeature's createCell/createColumn/createHeader methods generic over TValue so the invariant type parameter flows through correctly in implementation code
• Propagates TValue to feature createColumn implementations and internal helpers (shouldAutoRemoveFilter) that were previously hardcoding Column<TData, unknown>
• Fixes a bug where tsc silently drops type errors depending on file processing order, while the IDE (language server) correctly reports them

Root cause

TypeScript has a known variance computation bug with mutually recursive generic types (microsoft/TypeScript#44572, closed as Design Limitation). When tsc processes files in a certain order, the variance computation cycle causes it to bail out and cache TValue as [independent], making ColumnDef<Row, string> incorrectly assignable to ColumnDef<Row, unknown>. The official workaround is explicit variance annotations, introduced in TS 4.7 (microsoft/TypeScript#48240).

Reproduction

https://github.com/Faithfinder/ts-ide-cli-repro (main branch)

Fixes #6167
Related: #4241, #4382

Test plan

• table-core type-checks cleanly (tsc --noEmit)
• table-core unit tests pass (21/21)
• react-table unit tests pass (8/8)
• Verified against the repro — all 3 type errors are now correctly reported by tsc regardless of file order

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Refactor
  • Improved TypeScript typing across the table core module by applying variance annotations to generic types, enhancing type safety and inference for consumers and tooling without changing runtime behavior or public functionality.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Added explicit variance annotations (in out) to many generic type parameters across the table-core package and adjusted several unknown defaults to any. All edits are type-level only; no runtime logic or control flow was changed. (≈35 files touched; summary focuses on exported/public types.)

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Core types packages/table-core/src/core/cell.ts, packages/table-core/src/core/column.ts, packages/table-core/src/core/headers.ts	Added in out variance annotations to exported interfaces: CellContext, CoreCell, CoreColumn, HeaderContext, and CoreHeader.
Primary types file packages/table-core/src/types.ts	Systematic addition of in/out variance to many public generics (AccessorFn, Column/Cell/Header, ColumnDef* variants, ColumnDefExtensions, etc.) and several unknown defaults changed to any. Also narrowed several TableFeature.create* signatures to include a TValue generic.
Feature: ColumnGrouping packages/table-core/src/features/ColumnGrouping.ts	Added in out variance to GroupingColumnDef generic parameters.
Feature: ColumnFaceting packages/table-core/src/features/ColumnFaceting.ts	createColumn signature made generic over TValue and now accepts Column<TData, TValue>.
Feature: ColumnFiltering packages/table-core/src/features/ColumnFiltering.ts	Introduced TValue generics and changed several function/typedef column parameter types from Column<TData, unknown> → Column<TData, any> (and related signature updates).
Feature: ColumnOrdering packages/table-core/src/features/ColumnOrdering.ts	createColumn signature made generic over TValue and now accepts Column<TData, TValue>.
Feature: GlobalFiltering packages/table-core/src/features/GlobalFiltering.ts	getColumnCanGlobalFilter widened to accept Column<TData, any>; createColumn signature now generic over TValue and accepts Column<TData, TValue>.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Suggested reviewers

• KevinVandy

Poem

🐰 Hopped through generics with ears held high,

In and out markers winked an approving eye.
Unknowns turned to any, the meadow's in tune,
Types now dance lightly beneath the moon. ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately summarizes the main change: adding variance annotations to fix file-order-dependent type errors in TypeScript type checking.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is comprehensive and addresses the template requirements. It includes a detailed summary of changes, root cause analysis, reproduction steps, and test plan confirming testing was performed.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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[coderabbitai]

Caution

Some comments are outside the diff and can’t be posted inline due to platform limitations.

⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

packages/table-core/src/core/headers.ts (1)

19-32: ⚠️ Potential issue | 🟡 Minor

HeaderContext is missing extends RowData constraint on TData.

Unlike CellContext<in out TData extends RowData, in out TValue> in cell.ts (line 4) and CoreHeader below (line 34), HeaderContext declares in out TData without the extends RowData bound. This appears to be a pre-existing inconsistency, but since this PR is cleaning up the type parameter declarations across the cycle, it's a good opportunity to fix it.

Proposed fix

-export interface HeaderContext<in out TData, in out TValue> {
+export interface HeaderContext<in out TData extends RowData, in out TValue> {

[coderabbitai]

Caution

Some comments are outside the diff and can’t be posted inline due to platform limitations.

⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

packages/table-core/src/features/ColumnFiltering.ts (1)

44-47: ⚠️ Potential issue | 🟡 Minor

TransformFilterValueFn still uses Column<TData, unknown> — inconsistent with the any change on ColumnFilterAutoRemoveTestFn.

With Column now invariant in TValue, Column<TData, string> (or any non-unknown TValue) is no longer assignable to Column<TData, unknown>. ColumnFilterAutoRemoveTestFn (line 51) was correctly updated to Column<TData, any>, but TransformFilterValueFn was not. Both are callbacks on FilterFn that receive an optional Column parameter — they should be consistent.

Proposed fix

 export type TransformFilterValueFn<TData extends RowData> = (
   value: any,
-  column?: Column<TData, unknown>
+  column?: Column<TData, any>
 ) => unknown