Simplest use of TypeScript for node development with VS Code

.vscode_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": [
        {
            "name": "Run server (dev)",
            "type": "node-terminal",
            "request": "launch",
            "command": "yarn dev",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
          }
    ]
}

package.json

{
  "name": "yourpackage",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "main": "dist/index.js",
  "license": "MIT",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc",
    "start": "node dist/index.js",
    "dev": "ts-node-dev --inspect=4321 --respawn --transpile-only src/index.ts"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "4.17.1",
    "typescript": "4.1.3",
    "@types/express": "4.17.11"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "ts-node-dev": "1.1.1"
  }
}

src_index.ts

import express from "express";

const app = express();

app.get("/", async (req, res) => {
  res.send("Hello world!");
});

app.listen(3000);

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es5",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "removeComments": true,
    "strict": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "noImplicitAny": false,
    "noImplicitThis": false
  },
  "include": ["./src"],
  "exclude": ["./node_modules"]
}