Simple TypeScript setup to debug Mocha tests from VS Code

A TypeScript setup to run and debug Mocha tests without extra configuration and runtime overhead of tools like ts-node.

You can try it out with VS Code or in your browser with Gitpod (requires OAuth with GitHub):

Installing

Install typescript and mocha from cli with:

yarn

Note: Gitpod auto installs dependencies on the workspace initialization, see .gitpod.yml

Building

Code and tests can be compiled from cli with:

yarn watch

Note: Gitpod auto starts watching on each workspace startup, see .gitpod.yml

Running tests

All tests can be run from cli with:

yarn test

Debugging tests

An individual ts spec file can be debugged in VS Code or Gitpod with Mocha Tests configuration:

• select a ts spec file, i.e. repo.spec.ts;
• add a breakpoint;
• press F5 to run tests in the selected file.

tsc is configured to compile to lib folder and produce source maps. Mocha Test configuration looks up source maps from the lib folder via outFiles property, and executes tests from all files matching **/${fileBasenameNoExtension}.js, e.g. for src/repo.spec.ts files matching **/repo.spec.js are included.