mkdir skeleton-ts
cd skeleton-ts

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gitignore/refs/heads/main/Node.gitignore > .gitignore

pnpm init
mkdir src dist
pnpm i typescript -D
npx tsc --init
echo "console.log('Hello, TypeScript!');" > src/index.ts
code .

• edit tsconfig.json uncommenting rootDir and outDir

• edit package.json adding following scripts

{
    "scripts": {
        "build": "tsc",
        "start": "tsc && node dist/index.js",
    }
}

• from vscode C-S-p Debug: Add Configuration...

  • choose More Node.js options...
  • then choose Run Script: start

• place a breakpoint into index.ts ( F9 )

• hit F5 to start debugger

to be able use import express from 'express' you have to tune tsconfig.json commenting out verbatimModuleSyntax