Can not run and debug tests with AVA in VSCode. Nodejs, Typescript, ESM modules, with aliases (absolute paths) working.

[korulis]

This is a port of a question from @ava/typescript forum as suggested by the author of that package - novemberborn.

• What you're trying to do:

I am trying to create a Typescript project with Ava testing where I could debug the code while tests are running. My setup used to just work (as described here) when I was using commonjs modules, but after switching to esm I can not get it to work. I have spent hours and days looking for the right configuration and/or workaround for that.
This is my current setup (master branch on repo) after switching to esm modules.

• What happened

Adding breakpoints and running the app yarn start correctly stops at breakpoints, but when running yarn test it does not stop at breakpoints.

• What you expected to happen

I was expecting the execution to stop at breakpoints in app.ts and test.test.ts files

What Iv'e tried so far:

• Using esm-module-alias to create custom loader. This fixes the issue of alias paths in generated .js files, and allows debugging in vscode both with "start": "rm -rf dist && NODE_ENV=development tsx watch ./src/app/index.ts", and "build_and_start_ema": "tsc && node --loader=./dist/app/alias.js ./dist/app/index.js", commands. It also allows running ava tests with "test": "NODE_OPTIONS='--import=tsx' ava --config unittest.js", ,but does not allow debuging. (on master branch)
• Using tsconfig-paths to fix aliased import paths in generated javascript - this does not even allow running the app after build phase. (on master branch)
• Using ts-patch to fix aliased import paths in generated javascript - this does not allow running tests at all. See repo branch.
• Using '' this allows running the tests but not debugging them, and only after running command "build_tsca": "tsc --project tsconfig.json && tsc-alias -p tsconfig.json", , which means I can not run tests continuously using yarn test --watch . See repo branch.
• (new) Using simply tsc to compile/transpile my typescript into javascript into dist/ folder and then runing with ava without the typescript config (yarn build + yarn test). See commit for this attempt. This does run the tests, but it still does not stop at vscode breakpoints. Why I expected the breakpoints to work in this case? After all, my breakpoints are in .ts files and I am executing strictly only .js files in dist/ folder... - because when I do analogous thing for running the app "build_and_start_ema": "tsc && node --loader=./dist/app/alias.js ./dist/app/index.js", it DOES hit the breakpoints in .ts files even though I am executing only the .js files.

Overall my best attempts were attempt 1 and 4, but attempt 1 is better because it allows running tests continuously.

How can I achieve being able to continously run and debug ava tests in vscode on a typescript project with ESM modules that uses aliased import paths, like it used to when I was using commonjs modules?

my "flattened" tsconfig in master branch:

> npx tsc --showConfig
{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "lib": [
            "es2022"
        ],
        "module": "nodenext",
        "target": "es2022",
        "strict": true,
        "esModuleInterop": true,
        "skipLibCheck": true,
        "moduleResolution": "nodenext",
        "rootDir": "./src",
        "resolveJsonModule": true,
        "moduleDetection": "force",
        "isolatedModules": true,
        "verbatimModuleSyntax": true,
        "noUncheckedIndexedAccess": true,
        "noImplicitOverride": true,
        "noImplicitReturns": true,
        "noImplicitThis": true,
        "noImplicitAny": true,
        "noUnusedLocals": true,
        "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
        "strictNullChecks": true,
        "useUnknownInCatchVariables": true,
        "outDir": "./dist",
        "sourceMap": true,
        "baseUrl": "./",
        "paths": {
            "*": [
                "./src/*"
            ]
        },
        "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
        "resolvePackageJsonExports": true,
        "resolvePackageJsonImports": true,
        "preserveConstEnums": true,
        "useDefineForClassFields": true,
        "strictFunctionTypes": true,
        "strictBindCallApply": true,
        "strictPropertyInitialization": true,
        "strictBuiltinIteratorReturn": true,
        "alwaysStrict": true
    },
    "files": [
        "./src/app/alias.ts",
        "./src/app/app.ts",
        "./src/app/app2.ts",
        "./src/app/index.ts",
        "./src/test/unit/test.test.ts",
        "./src/test/unit/test2.test.ts"
    ],
    "include": [
        "src/**/*"
    ],
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules/**/*"
    ]
}

How can I achieve being able to continously run and debug ava tests in vscode on a typescript project with ESM modules that uses aliased import paths, like it used to when I was using commonjs modules?