Enable pure string creation with documentMode:string in v7

[dohomi]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I am using codegen for the past 5 years with several community versions like typescript-graphql-request and typescript-react-query. The produced code was at runtime always just a string which was fine because I would only use the hooks or sdk and everything stays type safe in my codebase.

The footprint for the client app was minimal, no graphql or any other lib needed at dependency, only devDependency as the end result was a string.

Describe the solution you'd like

After v7 upgrade all the strings are getting converted into new TypedDocumentString which requires a client lib for the use in my client app. This in my opinion should not be the case for documentMode: "string", first its quite confusing and also a regression in terms of bundle size of the final app generated code.

Describe alternatives you've considered

If users choose documentMode:"string" the final output of generated code should stay a string and should not create a TypedDocumentString

Any additional important details?

No response

[cschanhniem]

The issue occurs because documentMode: "string" in v7 changes the AST resolution but the TypedDocumentString wrapper is still applied at the plugin output stage. The relevant code is in @graphql-codegen/plugin-helpers where documentMode branches — the string branch should emit a string literal type, not a TypedDocumentString<...>.

The fix is a one-line conditional in whichever plugin visitor emits the document node (likely in typescript-operations or client-preset). When config.documentMode === "string", the generated document constant should be typed as:

export const UserQuery: string = `...`;

instead of:

export const UserQuery = new TypedDocumentString<...>(`...`);

This preserves the existing documentMode: "typedDocumentNode" behavior for v7 but restores the v6 string mode behavior of zero-runtime-overhead when users opt into it.

The documentMode values should map as:

• "string" → emit string literal type, no TypedDocumentString wrapper, no graphql runtime dependency needed
• "typedDocumentNode" → emit TypedDocumentNode<...> (for compatibility with typed-document-node ecosystem)
• "documentNode" → emit DocumentNode (untyped, existing behavior)

[narduin]

This is also preventing me from upgrading since v7 came out.