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I'm very confused about the difference between tsc and ts-node. I'm learning TypeScript and I usually transpile server .ts files with tsc command.

Now, I'm approaching nestjs framework, and I see that it uses ts-node.

So what's the difference between the two? Which one should I use?

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  • @jfriend00 can you elaborate your answer? AFAIK tsc will change import to the commonjs require(), which in turn will load the JavaScript source file (assuming in node_modules). Commented Jul 20, 2018 at 18:29
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    Read the first paragraph here: npmjs.com/package/ts-node Commented Jul 20, 2018 at 18:40
  • Some discussion at reddit.com/r/typescript/comments/8vkvzy/… Commented Oct 10, 2019 at 21:27

3 Answers 3

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The main difference is that tsc transpile all the file according to your tsconfig.

Instead, ts-node will start from the entry file and transpile the file step by step through the tree based on the import/export.

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    So which one to use and when? Commented Jan 2, 2019 at 23:30
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    Its a better practice to use tsc to build your project and then run it with node in production, its also faster Commented Jan 3, 2019 at 7:37
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    Sometimes you only need to compile one entrypoint and it's imports - ts-node is perfect for that and has no downsides. Commented Dec 3, 2020 at 15:40
  • i think that there is a ts-node-dev package which speeds build times up if performance is an issue Commented Mar 12, 2022 at 13:58
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Most common practice is that tsc is used for production build and ts-node for development purposes running in --watch mode along with nodemon. This is a command i often use for development mode for my node/typescript projects:

"dev": "nodemon -w *.ts -e ts -x ts-node --files -H -T ./src/index.ts"
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    tsc --watch could've also been used which uses incremental builds and is faster than nodemon.. Commented Mar 14, 2022 at 9:17
  • I'm wondering which builder should I use to build react applications nowadays Commented Mar 29, 2022 at 13:54
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    Quick update on this, ts-node CAN be used in production: stackoverflow.com/questions/60581617/… and there's a faster way than using nodemon: npmjs.com/package/ts-node-dev Commented Apr 8, 2022 at 15:18
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    thank you for a working sample script in package json Commented Sep 24, 2022 at 18:29
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    what is the role of nodemon, if ts-node also have the --watch? Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 4:22
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TS-Node can also act as a REPL environment along with compiling.

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