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Transpilation - CI/CD Glossary Definition

Transpilation rewrites source into an equivalent form the target environment understands, like TypeScript to JavaScript.

Transpilation converts source code from one language or language version to another at the same abstraction level, such as TypeScript to JavaScript or modern JS to ES5. Babel, tsc, and SWC are common transpilers.

Transpilation lets you write modern or typed code while shipping something older browsers or Node versions accept. It is a distinct step from bundling, though bundlers often invoke a transpiler via a loader. In CI a transpile error (a type or syntax error) fails the build fast.

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