tsx

tsx

Node.js runtime that can instantaneously load TypeScript & ESM, powered by esbuild.

Features

• Transforms TypeScript & ESM → to CJS or ESM (depending on package type)
• Supports TS extensions .cjs & .mjs (.cts & .mts)
• Supports Node.js v12.20+
• Handles node: import prefixes
• Hides experimental feature warnings

Install

npm install --save-dev tsx

Install globally

Install it globally to use it anywhere, outside of your npm project, without npx.

npm install --global tsx

Usage

Note: Commands are prefixed with npx to execute the tsx binary, but it's not necessary if globally installed or when using it in the script object in package.json

Run TypeScript / ESM / CJS module

npx tsx ./file.ts

Watch mode

Run file and automatically re-run on changes.

All imported files are watched except from the following directories: node_modules, bower_components, vendor, dist, and .* (hidden directories).

Press Return to manually re-run.

npx tsx watch ./file.ts

Cache

Modules transformations are cached in the system cache directory (TMPDIR). Transforms are cached by content hash so duplicate dependencies are not re-transformed.

Set the --no-cache flag to disable the cache:

npx tsx --no-cache ./file.ts

Dependencies

• @esbuild-kit/esm-loader - TypeScript to ESM transpiler using the Node.js loader API.

• @esbuild-kit/cjs-loader - TypeScript & ESM to CJS transpiler using the Node.js loader API.

Similar packages

Other packages similar to tsx

ts-node

ts-node is a very popular package that offers similar functionality to tsx. It provides the ability to execute TypeScript files directly and use TypeScript in a REPL environment. ts-node is widely used in the TypeScript community for development and scripting. Compared to tsx, ts-node has been around longer and has a larger user base, but both aim to simplify the TypeScript development workflow by removing the compilation step.

esbuild-runner

esbuild-runner offers a way to run TypeScript (and JavaScript) files using the esbuild bundler/compiler. It's focused on providing extremely fast compilation and execution, leveraging esbuild's performance. While esbuild-runner and tsx share the goal of simplifying the execution of TypeScript files, esbuild-runner emphasizes speed and is part of the broader ecosystem around the esbuild project.