JSDoc ESNext Plugin

Smart JSDoc plugin that adds full ES2022+ class-feature support – private fields, static members and arrow-bound methods.

Modern JavaScript syntax isn’t always accurately recognized by JSDoc. This plugin enables accurate recognition of modern ECMAScript class structures and enhances the resulting documentation.

Features

• Restores accurate naming for native #privateFields and #methods().
• Automatically tags private members with @private.
• Detects static class members and applies @static and scope: static.
• Treats arrow-bound methods as @function.
• Detects assignments like this.#foo = ... in constructors.
• Works seamlessly with JSDoc's default parser.
• Works with all themes (but see note below!).
• Perfectly integrates with VisionTheme for a modern UI (optional).
• Tested with JSDoc 3.6.11 and 4.0.4.

Installation

npm install --save-dev @alphanull/jsdoc-plugin-esnext

Then, add the plugin to your JSDoc configuration file:

{
    "plugins": [
        "@alphanull/jsdoc-plugin-esnext"
    ]
}

Example

export default class Example {

    /**
     * Static counter
     * @type {number}
     */
    static counter = 0;

    /**
     * Private field
     * @type {string}
     */
    static #secret = 'abc';

    /**
     * Bound handler
     * @function
     */
    #handleClick = () => {
        console.log('clicked');
    }

    constructor() {
        this.#local = 123;
    }

    /**
     * Private method
     */
    #compute() {
        return true;
    }
}

Resulting Documentation:

Without plugin	Using jsdoc-plugin-esnext

• counter appears with @static and type.
• #secret is listed as private static.
• #handleClick is listed as a private function.
• #compute() is listed as a private method.

Limitations

While there are no limitations with this plugin per se, for private members (which start with "#") there can be resulting hash links containing two hashes, like: <a href="##privateMember">#privateMember</a> which can lead to broken links. Unfortunately, this cannot be handled by the plugin itself and needs to be managed by the theme.

The good news is that documenting modern code typically requires a modern theme anyway. Consider using the brand-new JSDoc VisionTheme, which addresses this issue and is fully tested and optimized for compatibility with this plugin.

License

MIT License

Copyright © 2025–present Frank Kudermann @ alphanull.de