Executing typescript code using ts-node gives "Cannot use import statement outside a module" error

Question

I am trying to run apollo-server and the code I have written is in TypeScript.

My code folder contains a tsconfig.json which looks like this:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "esnext",
    "lib": [
      "esnext"
    ],
    "allowJs": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "strict": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "module": "esnext",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "isolatedModules": true,
    "noEmit": true
  },
  "include": [
    "server"
  ]
}

The command I am running is below:

$ npx ts-node ./server/index.ts

If I remove the tsconfig.json (which of course I can't do), the command above works fine. I am not sure which configuration is actually causing the problem.

@Pablo For now I have temporarily removed the module option which seems to work. — Sachin Singh
– Sachin Singh, Commented Jul 20, 2020 at 9:08

Kalle · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-13 17:33:29Z

1

the setting you are searching is "module": "commonjs". As ts-node is executing your code in the nodejs environment you have to use its module system. If you need your config as default for your project you can create a second tsconfig tsconfig.node.json and target it with ts-node --project <tsconfig.json>

tsconfig.node.json:

{
  "extends": "./",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "commonjs",
  },
}

answered Jul 13, 2020 at 17:33

Kalle

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2 Comments

Sachin Singh Over a year ago

I tried changing module option to commonjs. It didn't work. I have es6 style imports in the code. It throws an error for that.

Sachin Singh Over a year ago

I will give this second approach of providing a separate tsconfig.json file a try.

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