Cannot find type definition file for 'node' in TypeScript

# Cannot find type definition file for 'node' in TypeScript

To solve the error "Cannot find type definition file for node", install the node types by running npm i -D @types/node.

If the error persists, try adding node to your types array in tsconfig.json and restarting your IDE.

# Install the typings for Node.js

Open your terminal in the root directory of your project (where your package.json file is) and run the following command to install the typings for Node.

shell

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# 👇️ with NPM
npm install --save-dev @types/node

# 👇️ with YARN
yarn add @types/node --dev

install node typings

The code for this article is available on GitHub

If the error persists, try restarting your IDE.

# Add `node` to the `types` array in `tsconfig.json`

If that doesn't help, make sure the types array in your tsconfig.json file contains "node".

tsconfig.json

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{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "types": [
      // ... your other types
      "node"
    ],
  },
}

add node to types array in tsconfig json

That should fix the error in your project.

When the types option is specified, only the listed packages will be included in the global scope.

The example makes sure we include ./node_modules/@types/node, so we have typings for Node.js built-ins.

If types is not specified in your tsconfig.json file, all @types packages are included in your compilation - node_modules/@types/*.

# Delete your node_modules and reinstall your dependencies

If the error is not resolved, try to delete your node_modules and package-lock.json files, re-run npm install and restart your IDE.

shell

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# 👇️  (Windows) delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rd /s /q "node_modules"
del package-lock.json
del -f yarn.lock

# 👇️  (macOS/Linux) delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rm -rf node_modules
rm -f package-lock.json
rm -f yarn.lock

# 👇️ clean npm cache
npm cache clean --force

npm install

Restart your IDE and development server if the error persists.

Visual studio code often glitches and restarting the code editor sometimes helps.

The code for this article is available on GitHub

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Cannot find type definition file for 'node' in TypeScript