It's not that simple because you can reverse lookup a TS enum. So: enum Color { Red = 1, Green = 2 } would be the same as: var Color = { Red: 1

It's not that simple because you can reverse lookup a TS enum. So: enum Color { Red = 1, Green = 2 } would be the same as: var Color = { Red: 1, 1: 'Red', Green: 2, 2: 'Green' } See for yourself: https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/#src=enum%20Color%7B%0D%0A%20%20%20%20Red%20%3D%201%2C%20Green%20%3D%202%0D%0A%7D%0D%0A%0D%0A%2F%2F%20To%20String%0D%0A%20var%20green%3A%20string%20%3D%20Color%5BColor.Green%5D%3B%0D%0A%0D%0A%2F%2F%20To%20Enum%0D%0Avar%20color%20%3A%20Color%20%3D%20Color%5Bgreen%5D%3B%0D%0A%0D%0A https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/#src=enum%20Color%7B%0D%... But I agree with you, it would be quite easy for an automated tool to replace a TS enum with pure JS.