Debugging nest.js application with vscode

Question

I am testing the nest.js framework but I am struggling to run it with VSCode so that I can properly debug my code. This is pretty much the same issue as described here Running nest.js from VS Code. However I made sure I am using the latest packages. I always get this error:

Error: Cannot find module 'cats/cats.module'     at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:485:15)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:437:25)     at Module.require (module.js:513:17)     at require (internal/module.js:11:18)     at Object.<anonymous> (c:\Users\user\Documents\random-api\dist\app.module.js:11:26)     at Module._compile (module.js:569:30)     at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)     at Module.load (module.js:503:32)     at tryModuleLoad (module.js:466:12)     at Function.Module._load (module.js:458:3) 

npm run start works completely perfect, but I want to debug the application with the VSCode IDE.

My package.json dependencies:

  "dependencies": {     "@nestjs/common": "^4.6.6",     "@nestjs/core": "^4.6.6",     "@nestjs/microservices": "^4.6.6",     "@nestjs/testing": "^4.6.6",     "@nestjs/websockets": "^4.6.6",     "reflect-metadata": "^0.1.12",     "rxjs": "^5.5.7",     "typescript": "^2.7.2"   },   "devDependencies": {     "@types/express": "^4.11.1",     "@types/jest": "^22.2.2",     "@types/node": "^9.6.0",     "@types/supertest": "^2.0.4",     "jest": "^22.4.3",     "nodemon": "^1.17.2",     "prettier": "^1.11.1",     "supertest": "^3.0.0",     "ts-jest": "^22.4.2",     "ts-node": "^5.0.1",     "tsconfig-paths": "^3.1.3",     "tslint": "5.9.1",     "tslint-microsoft-contrib": "^5.0.3"   }, 

My vscode's launch.json:

{     "version": "0.2.0",     "configurations": [         {             "type": "node",             "request": "launch",             "name": "Launch Program",             "program": "${workspaceFolder}\\dist\\main.js",             "smartStep": true,             "outFiles": [                 "${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js"             ]         }     ] } 

I tried the same launch.json with the typescript file as path, but that threw the same exception:

"program": "${workspaceFolder}\\src\\main.ts", 

Answer 1

Try this launch.json:

{     // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.     // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.     // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387     "version": "0.2.0",     "configurations": [         {             "type": "node",             "request": "launch",             "name": "Debug Nest Framework",             "args": ["${workspaceFolder}/src/main.ts"],             "runtimeArgs": ["--nolazy", "-r", "ts-node/register"],             "sourceMaps": true,             "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",             "protocol": "inspector"         }     ] }