• Install Node.js
• Install VS Code

• Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/greenroach/express-ts-template.git

• Install dependencies

cd <project_name>
npm install

• Build and run the project

npm run build
npm start

Navigate to http://localhost:3000

Debugging is one of the places where VS Code really shines over other editors. Node.js debugging in VS Code is easy to setup and even easier to use. This project comes pre-configured with everything you need to get started.

When you hit F5 in VS Code, it looks for a top level .vscode folder with a launch.json file. In this file, you can tell VS Code exactly what you want to do:

{
  "type": "node",
  "request": "attach",
  "name": "Attach by Process ID",
  "processId": "${command:PickProcess}",
  "protocol": "inspector"
}

This is mostly identical to the "Node.js: Attach by Process ID" template with one minor change. We added "protocol": "inspector" which tells VS Code that we're using the latest version of Node which uses a new debug protocol.

With this file in place, you can hit F5 to attach a debugger. You will probably have multiple node processes running, so you need to find the one that shows node dist/server.js. Now just set your breakpoints and go!

Based on TypeScript Node Starter and Express Generator