Basic server setup with express

This blog helps setup backend with typescript for Nodejs projects.

Step 1: Install package for typescript & types for nodejs.

npm install @types/node typescript

This installs package called express from npm repository. This automatically adds package.json & node_modules folder in the project folder. In package.json file you can see:

{
  "dependencies": {
        "typescript": "^5.8.3",
		"@types/node": "^22.15.3",
  }
}

Meaning: The project depends on typescript & @types/node package to run. (in typescript)5 is major version, 8 is minor verson, 3 is patch version.^ means when installing this package it can automatically upgrade it’s version not containing breaking changes. Version from 5.8.3 up to any version but not including 6.0.0

Step 2: Initialize config file for typescript.

npx tsc --init

Meaning: tsc is a typescript compiler. In above command, it initializes tsconfig.json file (a configuration file for typescript)

Step 3: Install tsx

npm install tsx --save-dev To install tsx locally. npm install tsx -g To install globally.

npm install tsx --save-dev // saves locally
npm install tsx -g // saves globally

Step 4: Configure package.json

in package.json

  "scripts": {
    "dev": "tsx —watch src/main.ts"
  }

Step 5: Install express

npm install express @types/express