How to run TypeScript files from command line

Question

I m having a surprisingly hard time finding an answer to this  With plain Node JS  you can run any js file with node path to file js  with CoffeeScript it s coffee hello coffee and ES6 has babel-node hello js  How do I do the same with Typescript   My project has a tsconfig json which is used by Webpack ts-loader to build a nice little bundle for the browser  I have a need for a build step run from the console before that  though  that would use some of the  ts files used in the project to generate a schema  but I can t seem to be able to run a single Typescript file without compiling the whole project

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Just helpful information - here is newest TypeScript   JavaScript runtime Deno   It was created by the creator of node Ryan Dahl  based on what he would do differently if he could start fresh

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To add to  Aamod answer above  If you want to use one command line to compile and run your code  you can use the following  Windows  tsc main ts   node main js  Linux   macOS  tsc main ts  amp  amp  node main js

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You can use esrun that executes almost instantly a typescript file  Advantages over ts-node   very fast  use esbuild   you can use ES modules without having to add  quot types quot    quot module quot  to your package json  you can also use it as a replacement to Node to execute modern Javascript with ES modules  decorators  class fields  etc

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Run the below commands and install the required packages globally  npm install -g ts-node npm install -g typescript  Now run the following command to execute a typescript file  ts-node typescript-file ts

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This answer may be premature  but deno supports running both TS and JS out of the box  Based on your development environment  moving to Deno  and learning about it  might be too much  but hopefully this answer helps someone in the future

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For environments such as Webstorm where the node command cannot be changed to ts-node or npx   npm install ts-node typescript  Install dependencies  node --require ts-node register src foo ts  Add --require ts-node register to  quot Node parameters quot

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How do I do the same with Typescript   You can leave tsc running in watch mode using tsc -w -p   and it will generate  js files for you in a live fashion  so you can run node foo js like normal  TS Node  There is ts-node   https   github com TypeStrong ts-node that will compile the code on the fly and run it through node   npx ts-node src foo ts

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This question was posted in 2015  In 2018  node recognizes both  js and  ts  So  running node file ts will also run

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None of the other answers discuss how to run a TypeScript script that uses modules  and especially modern ES Modules   First off  ts-node doesn t work in that scenario  as of March 2020  So we ll settle for tsc followed by node   Second  TypeScript still can t output  mjs files  So we ll settle for  js files and  type    module  in package json   Third  you want clean import lines  without specifying the  js extension  which would be confusing in  ts files    import   Lib   from    Lib     Well  that s non-trivial  Node requires specifying extensions on imports  unless you use the experimental-specifier-resolution node flag  In this case  it would enable Node to look for Lib js or Lib index js when you only specify   Lib on the import line   Fourth  there s still a snag  if you have a different main filename than index js in your package  Node won t find it   Transpiling makes things a lot messier than running vanilla Node   Here s a sample repo with a modern TypeScript project structure  generating ES Module code

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Install ts-node node module globally  Create node runtime configuration  for IDE  or use node in command line to run below file js file  The path is for windows  but you can do it for linux as well    AppData Roaming npm node modules ts-node dist bin js Give your ts file path as a command line argument  Run Or Debug as you like

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Write yourself a simple bash wrapper may helps      bin bash npx tsc  1  amp  amp  node   1   ts

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Like Zeeshan Ahmad s answer  I also think ts-node is the way to go  I would also add a shebang and make it executable  so you can just run it directly    Install typescript and ts-node globally   npm install -g ts-node typescript   or  yarn global add ts-node typescript  Create a file hello with this content      usr bin env ts-node-script  import   as os from  os   function hello name  string        return  Hello      name   const user   os userInfo   username console log  Result    hello user       As you can see  line one has the shebang for ts-node Run directly by just executing the file      hello Result  Hello  root    Some notes    This does not seem to work with ES modules  as Dan Dascalescu has pointed out  See this issue discussing the best way to make a command line script with package linking  provided by Kaspar Etter  I have improved the shebang accordingly     Update 2020-04-06  Some changes after great input in the comments  Update shebang to use ts-node-script instead of ts-node  link to issues in ts-node

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Just in case anyone is insane like me and wants to just run typescript script as though it was a  js script  you can try this  I ve written a hacky script that appears to execute the  ts script using node      usr bin env bash  NODEPATH   HOME  nvm versions node v8 11 3 bin    set path to your node tsc  export TSC   NODEPATH tsc  export NODE   NODEPATH node   TSCFILE  1   only parameter is the name of the ts file you created   function show usage         echo  ts2node  ts file       exit 0    if     TSCFILE          then     show usage  fi  JSFILE    echo  TSCFILE cut -d    -f 1  js    TSC  TSCFILE  amp  amp   NODE  JSFILE   You can do this or write your own but essentially  it creates the  js file and then uses node to run it like so     tsrun myscript ts   Simple  Just make sure your script only has one     else you ll need to change your JSFILE in a different way than what I ve shown

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There is also an option to run code directly from the CLI  not the   ts file itself  It s perfectly described in the ts-node manual   As a first step  install ts-node globally via npm  yarn  or whatever you like     and now just use ts-node -e  console log  quot Hello  world  quot     you may also add the -p flag for printing code   This little command is perfect for checking  does everything installed fine  And for finding some other error  relevant with tsconfig json options

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We have following steps   First you need to install typescript npm install -g typescript   Create one file helloworld ts function hello person      return  quot Hello   quot    person    let user    quot Aamod Tiwari quot   const result   hello user   console log  quot Result quot   result    Open command prompt and type the following command tsc helloworld ts   Again run the command node helloworld js   Result will display on console

[node.js] How to run TypeScript files from command line?

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