How to set up a simple Node.js and Typescript development environment

For the last few months, I configured a Node.js development environment multiple times. And to save my and hopefully your time, I want to provide a set of clear instructions that you can use to configure a simple Node.js and Typescript development environment. Let's begin right away:

Create a project folder and enter it
```
# Run:
mkdir app && cd app
```
Initialize project:
```
# Run:
npm init -y
# or
yarn init -y
```

Install required dependencies:

# Run:
npm install -D typescript ts-node-dev @types/node
# or
yarn add typescript ts-node-dev @types/node --dev

Create Typescript config:

# Run:
touch tsconfig.json

# Add this config to the file:
{
"compilerOptions": {
 "strict": true,                           
 "target": "es5",                        
 "outDir": "./dist", 
 "declaration": true,                   
 "skipLibCheck": true,                     
 "module": "commonjs",                     
 "esModuleInterop": true,            
 "resolveJsonModule": true,     
 "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
}
}

(Optional) Initialize Git

# Run:
git init && touch .gitignore

# Add this to the .gitignore:
node_modules
dist

Create the initial project structure:
```
# Run:
mkdir src && touch src/index.ts && echo "console.log('Hello Typescript!')" > src/index.ts
```
It will create the src folder with the index.ts file and console.log('Hello Typescript!') as the content.

Replace scripts to the package.json:

# ...

"scripts": {
"build": "tsc",
"dev": "tsnd --respawn src",
"start": "node dist/index.js"
},
# ...

Run the project:

# To start the development environment run
npm run dev
# or
yarn dev

# To create the production build run
npm run build
# or
yarn build

# To start the production server run
npm run start
# or
yarn start

Now you are all set and have a good starting point to develop your environment as you go.

I hope it saved a little bit of time that you can spend working on your awesome project!

By the way, I have a short article about configuring the frontend: How to quickly wire up Next.js with Tailwind CSS and Typescript