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Usage

Command Line​

shell
# Execute a script as `node` + `tsc`.
ts-node script.ts
# Starts a TypeScript REPL.
ts-node
# Execute code with TypeScript.
ts-node -e 'console.log("Hello, world!")'
# Execute, and print, code with TypeScript.
ts-node -p -e '"Hello, world!"'
# Pipe scripts to execute with TypeScript.
echo 'console.log("Hello, world!")' | ts-node
# Equivalent to ts-node --transpileOnly
ts-node-transpile-only script.ts
# Equivalent to ts-node --cwdMode
ts-node-cwd script.ts
# Equivalent to ts-node --esm
ts-node-esm script.ts
shell
# Execute a script as `node` + `tsc`.
ts-node script.ts
# Starts a TypeScript REPL.
ts-node
# Execute code with TypeScript.
ts-node -e 'console.log("Hello, world!")'
# Execute, and print, code with TypeScript.
ts-node -p -e '"Hello, world!"'
# Pipe scripts to execute with TypeScript.
echo 'console.log("Hello, world!")' | ts-node
# Equivalent to ts-node --transpileOnly
ts-node-transpile-only script.ts
# Equivalent to ts-node --cwdMode
ts-node-cwd script.ts
# Equivalent to ts-node --esm
ts-node-esm script.ts

Shebang​

To write scripts with maximum portability, specify options in your tsconfig.json and omit them from the shebang.

typescript
#!/usr/bin/env ts-node
 
// ts-node options are read from tsconfig.json
 
console.log("Hello, world!")
typescript
#!/usr/bin/env ts-node
 
// ts-node options are read from tsconfig.json
 
console.log("Hello, world!")

Including options within the shebang requires the env -S flag, which is available on recent versions of env. (compatibility)

typescript
#!/usr/bin/env -S ts-node --files
// This shebang works on Mac and Linux with newer versions of env
// Technically, Mac allows omitting `-S`, but Linux requires it
typescript
#!/usr/bin/env -S ts-node --files
// This shebang works on Mac and Linux with newer versions of env
// Technically, Mac allows omitting `-S`, but Linux requires it

To test your version of env for compatibility with -S:

shell
# Note that these unusual quotes are necessary
/usr/bin/env --debug '-S echo foo bar'
shell
# Note that these unusual quotes are necessary
/usr/bin/env --debug '-S echo foo bar'

node flags and other tools​

You can register ts-node without using our CLI: node -r ts-node/register and node --loader ts-node/esm

In many cases, setting NODE_OPTIONS will enable ts-node within other node tools, child processes, and worker threads. This can be combined with other node flags.

shell
NODE_OPTIONS="-r ts-node/register --no-warnings" node ./index.ts
shell
NODE_OPTIONS="-r ts-node/register --no-warnings" node ./index.ts

Or, if you require native ESM support:

shell
NODE_OPTIONS="--loader ts-node/esm"
shell
NODE_OPTIONS="--loader ts-node/esm"

This tells any node processes which receive this environment variable to install ts-node's hooks before executing other code.

If you are invoking node directly, you can avoid the environment variable and pass those flags to node.

shell
node --loader ts-node/esm --inspect ./index.ts
shell
node --loader ts-node/esm --inspect ./index.ts

Programmatic​

You can require ts-node and register the loader for future requires by using require('ts-node').register({ /* options */ }).

Check out our API for more features.