How to force tsc to ignore node_modules folder?

When developing projects with TypeScript, we typically do not need to perform type checking on the code within the node_modules folder, as these are third-party libraries that are usually already compiled JavaScript files or include necessary type definitions. To optimize compilation time and avoid unnecessary type error warnings, we can configure the tsconfig.json file to have the TypeScript compiler ignore the node_modules folder.

In the tsconfig.json file, you can use the exclude property to specify files or folders that the compiler should ignore. For example:

json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "commonjs",
    "target": "es6",
    // Other compilation options
  },
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules"
  ]
}

In the above configuration, the exclude array includes "node_modules", meaning that during compilation, the TypeScript compiler will not process any files within the node_modules folder.

Additionally, if you have specific files or subdirectories within node_modules that you want the compiler to process, you can explicitly specify them using the include property:

json
{
  "include": [
    "src/**/*",
    "node_modules/some_special_library"
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules"
  ]
}

In this example, although the entire node_modules is excluded, the node_modules/some_special_library directory will be included because it is explicitly specified in the include array.

After configuring the tsconfig.json, every time you run the tsc command (TypeScript compiler), the compiler will process or ignore specified files and directories based on these rules. This effectively controls the compilation process, improves compilation efficiency, and avoids unnecessary compilation errors.