Running TypeScript Directly in Node.js with Type Stripping

For years, running TypeScript in Node.js meant a compile step or a loader like ts-node or tsx. Recent Node.js versions can run .ts files directly by stripping the type annotations.

Try it

// greet.ts
interface Person { name: string }

function greet(p: Person): string {
  return `Hello, ${p.name}`;
}

console.log(greet({ name: 'Asha' }));

node greet.ts
# Hello, Asha

Type stripping is enabled by default from Node.js 23.6 and 22.18. On earlier 22.x versions, add the --experimental-strip-types flag.

What it does and doesn't do

• It removes types; it does not type-check. Run tsc --noEmit in your editor and CI for that.
• Only "erasable" syntax works: syntax that disappears when types are removed.
• enum, namespace with code, and constructor parameter properties need real code generation and are not supported by plain stripping.
• It ignores tsconfig.json path aliases.

Make the compiler enforce the rules

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noEmit": true,
    "erasableSyntaxOnly": true,
    "verbatimModuleSyntax": true,
    "allowImportingTsExtensions": true,
    "module": "nodenext",
    "target": "esnext"
  }
}

• erasableSyntaxOnly reports enums and other non-erasable syntax.
• verbatimModuleSyntax forces import type for type-only imports, so they're removed cleanly.
• Import local files with the .ts extension: import { db } from './db.ts'.

Replacing enums

const Role = { Admin: 'admin', Member: 'member' } as const;
type Role = (typeof Role)[keyof typeof Role]; // 'admin' | 'member'

Great for scripts, CLIs and small services. For libraries you publish, still compile to JavaScript and ship .d.ts files.