Are there some places where we're expecting only ThreadInfo and not MinimallyEncodedThreadInfo (or the other way around)? Is it possible to modify ThreadInfo type to be what it already is or MinimallyEncodedThreadInfo (type ThreadInfo = { ... } | MinimallyEncodedThreadInfo)? That might be a more maintainable and much simpler approach.

In D9890#288332, @tomek wrote:

Are there some places where we're expecting only ThreadInfo and not MinimallyEncodedThreadInfo (or the other way around)? Is it possible to modify ThreadInfo type to be what it already is or MinimallyEncodedThreadInfo (type ThreadInfo = { ... } | MinimallyEncodedThreadInfo)? That might be a more maintainable and much simpler approach.

Yeah I think that makes sense, was thinking along those lines yesterday:

You're right that having to type RawThreadInfo | MinimallyEncodedRawThreadInfo everywhere would be super tedious.

Basically I think the best bet is:

1. Continue refactoring by incorporating MinimallyEncoded* where we currently have RawThreadInfo/ThreadInfo/etc until Flow issues are resolved
2. Rename existing ThreadInfo to LegacyThreadInfo (will only be really used on keyserver for supporting old clients)
3. Rename existing MinimallyEncoded[Raw]ThreadInfo to [Raw]ThreadInfo

Doing this refactor incrementally is helpful because we can make progress while keeping flow happy vs. having a bunch of flow issues that we need to handle all at once