Posted on Nov 5, 2020 • Edited on Dec 5, 2021

Debug Node.js Typescript app using VS Code (Mac,Linux)

Using the following configuration I managed to debug flawlessly Node.js applications written in Typescript using the Visual Studio Code IDE. I have tested it on Mac OS and almost every Linux distro like Debian, Ubuntu, Arch.

Configure tsconfig.json

First of all, enable source maps "sourceMap": true and declarations "declarationMap": true, "declaration": true.

Don't forget to specify the destination folder using the outDir parameter.

Configure VSCODE

Paste the following snippet and change __MYAPP__ to the typescript file you want to debug and __MYDIST_FOLDER__ to the dist folder of your project.

Don't forget to whitelist (OUTPUT) port 9229 locally on your iptables.

Examples:
__MYAPP__ = src/app.ts
__MYDIST_FOLDER__ = dist

{ "version": "0.2.0", "configurations": [ { "type": "node", "request": "launch", "name": "Debug Node.js", "program": "${workspaceFolder}/__MYAPP__.ts", "outFiles": [ "${workspaceFolder}/__MYDIST_FOLDER__/**/*.js" ], "sourceMaps": true, "port": 9229, "runtimeArgs": [ "--inspect-brk=9229" ], "console": "integratedTerminal" } ] }