tsconfig.json: Build:No inputs were found in config file

Question

I have an ASP.NET core project and I'm getting this error when I try to build it:

error TS18003: Build:No inputs were found in config file 'Z:/Projects/client/ZV/src/ZV/Scripts/tsconfig.json'. Specified 'include' paths were '["**/*"]' and 'exclude' paths were '["../wwwroot/app","node_modules/*"]'.
1>         The command exited with code 1.
1>       Done executing task "VsTsc" -- FAILED.

This is my tsconfig.json file:

{
  "compileOnSave": true,
  "compilerOptions": {
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "lib": [ "es5", "dom" ],
    "module": "commonjs",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "noEmitOnError": true,
    "noImplicitAny": false,
    "outDir": "../wwwroot/app/",
    "removeComments": false,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "es6"
  },
  "exclude": [
    "../wwwroot/app",
    "node_modules/*"
  ]
}

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? I did recently upgrade Visual Studio 2015 to update 3. Has anyone encountered this before?

This is intended behavior. You need to have something to compile. — Aluan Haddad, Dec 18 '16 at 19:40
@AluanHaddad You state this as if it is fact. Can you please provide proof for your assertion. — Serj Sagan, Jan 24 '17 at 16:41
Your source should be where you're pointing in "include" on tsconfig — Mohammad Kermani, Jun 26 '18 at 11:26
The default tsconfig.json doesn't have "include" and "exclude" props, so I had to add both. For some reason it seems that both were required — nth-chile, Oct 15 '20 at 03:10
I was facing this issue because the *TypeScript* file I had was empty. — Dhruv Anand, Feb 08 '22 at 12:48

score 667 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 31 '23 at 04:40

667

TypeScript expects there to be at least one TypeScript file in the folder in order to compile.

To fix the error, add an empty typescript file to the typescript scripts folder (the location of your tsconfig file).

edited Mar 31 '23 at 04:40

Miguel Guthridge

1,444
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answered Dec 18 '16 at 18:53

rood

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150

what does this mean? – Christian Matthew Feb 03 '17 at 19:25
56

@Christian Matthew This means, you need to add a t least one typescript file to the folder where your app is to satisfy typescript compiler. – rood Feb 04 '17 at 09:19
32

What do you mean by script folder. Can you please elaborate more?? – San Jaisy Feb 10 '17 at 00:48
@San Jaisy This is my custom folder where I keep my ts files and where tsconfig.json sits. – rood Feb 10 '17 at 09:48
4

Ironcially.. i used this answer a long time ago (added the tsconfig and it fixed this issue). When I added Vue to the project the issue popped up again... so I had to then delete the tsconfig I added in the past, and it worked :P – joshmcode Apr 06 '18 at 21:00
the empty ts in residing near tsconfig gets detected but it shows is 'rootDir(src)' is expected to contain all source files expected to contain all source files where i have kept all ts files - please help – Aromal Sasidharan Apr 24 '18 at 12:29
5

Thanks. Working for me. But can anyone explain what's actually happening behind? – DriLLFreAK100 Mar 13 '19 at 02:18
2

"what does this mean?" --> I think it means that you need to add at least a .ts file adjacent to your tsconfig.json file, or in a subfolder that the tsconfig.json file specifies as one that typescript should compile. If you're starting a new repo, this should go away when you start writing code. – Greg Micek May 13 '21 at 14:42
It doesn't even have to be a `.ts` file! I added my repo's `package.json` as workaround and it works well. – Nick Ribal Aug 14 '21 at 20:47
1

This worked for the Astro framework (https://astro.build). I created an empty.ts file in /src/components (you can name it as you wish). – Aamir Jul 20 '22 at 12:33
for me also fixed this with vue3 by removing tsconfig.json – DCX Apr 04 '23 at 16:15
By the way, if your configuration is `"include": ["src/**/*"]`, you must add a empty ts file in the `src` folder. – xgqfrms Aug 31 '23 at 16:41

score 310 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '19 at 16:23

310

You can also try to restart your code editor. That works well too.

answered Aug 23 '19 at 16:23

desoga

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33

Works for VSC. You can just restart the TS Server in VSC. Thanks. – mawburn Jan 05 '21 at 15:38
1

I was pulling my hair until I tried this :) – Mukesh Salaria Sep 29 '21 at 16:56
1

The other option is reload the editor: CMD+Shift+P then Type Reload (Developer: Reload the Window) and Enter – kimobrian254 May 31 '23 at 10:28
1

Better than the selected answer – Saurabh Vishwakarma Jul 04 '23 at 14:53

TheScrappyDev · Answer 3 · 2020-11-15T21:43:00.970

236

This can occur because typescript server can't find any files described by the include array:

// tsconfig.json
{
  //...
  "include": [
    "./src/"
  ],
}

If you're using VSCode, you can restart your TS server within your editor super easily to prompt it to re-evaluate the file like this:

Navigate to any .ts or .tsx file
Open the command palette (CMD + SHIFT + P on mac)
Run the TypeScript: Restart TS server command:

edited Nov 15 '20 at 21:43

answered Feb 14 '20 at 22:00

TheScrappyDev

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How do you get the _TypeScript_ command? I only have e.g. _File_, _Git_, _GitLens_, etc – Leo Mar 26 '20 at 19:47
7

@Leo make sure you're viewing a `.js`/`.jsx`/`.ts`/`.tsx` file when you look for the command. The command, for example, is not available when you're viewing an `.html` file – TheScrappyDev Apr 20 '20 at 18:21
restarting the ts server did it for me, didn't know that was a thing, thanks – Jeremy Aug 10 '21 at 20:20
this worked for me, others did not help as I did have .ts files there – Noob Nov 25 '21 at 03:30
This is the best answer, since it describes more in depth why the issue occurs (specific reference to tsconfig.json) and includes the case where the editor is bugging out. +1 – diggity Feb 28 '22 at 05:34
I ran into this after moving my tsconfig to the parent directory. This helped me to understand the very simple cause, thanks. – blwinters Mar 04 '23 at 19:58

score 39 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 21 '17 at 06:19

39

I'm not using TypeScript in this project at all so it's quite frustrating having to deal with this. I fixed this by adding a tsconfig.json and an empty file.ts file to the project root. The tsconfig.json contains this:

{
  "compilerOptions": {

    "allowJs": false,
    "noEmit": true // Do not compile the JS (or TS) files in this project on build

  },
  "compileOnSave": false,
  "exclude": [ "src", "wwwroot" ],
  "include": [ "file.ts" ]
}

answered Aug 21 '17 at 06:19

TreeAndLeaf

1,064
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2

This can also be used for `jsconfig.js`. I am not using TS as well, but Vue and Vetur are starting to require this for some reason. That is a really bad architecture on their part. – Vladimir Jovanović Apr 22 '21 at 09:21

score 17 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 17 '20 at 11:53

17

If you are using the vs code for editing then try restarting the editor.This scenario fixed my issue.I think it's the issue with editor cache.

answered Feb 17 '20 at 11:53

Susampath

706
10
13

score 16 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 18 '21 at 09:23

16

In modern typescript config just set "allowJs" and no need to add any empty .ts file in include directories such as "src" (specified in include array)

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowJs": true,
   ...
  },
  "include": [
    "src"
  ]
}

answered Sep 18 '21 at 09:23

Nikhil Nayyar

319
4
4

1

This works well, and for someone who is still getting errors after following the above, just restart your IDE and that shall fix the error. – Prajwal Kulkarni Jan 09 '22 at 06:21
This solution had no effect for us. – spadelives Feb 17 '23 at 23:39

score 15 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 01 '18 at 20:40

I have all of my .ts files inside a src folder that is a sibling of my tsconfig.json. I was getting this error when my include looked like this (it was working before, some dependency upgrade caused the error showing up):

"include": [
    "src/**/*"
],

changing it to this fixed the problem for me:

"include": [
    "**/*"
],

score 11 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 07 '19 at 17:23

When you create the tsconfig.json file by tsc --init, then it comments the input and output file directory. So this is the root cause of the error.

To get around the problem, uncomment these two lines:

"outDir": "./", 
"rootDir": "./",

Initially it would look like above after un-commenting.

But all my .ts scripts were inside src folder. So I have specified /src.

"outDir": "./scripts", 
"rootDir": "./src",

Please note that you need to specify the location of your .ts scripts in rootDir.

score 10 · Answer 9 · edited Dec 12 '20 at 13:26

I was getting this error:

No inputs were found in config file 'tsconfig.json'.

Specified include paths were '["**/*"]' and exclude paths '["**/*.spec.ts","app_/**/*.ts","**/*.d.ts","node_modules"]'.

I had a .tsconfig file, which read TS files from the ./src folder.

The issue here was that with the source folder not containing any .ts files and I was running tslint. I resolved issue by removing tslint task from my gulp file, as I don't have any .ts files to be compiled and linted.

rose specs · Answer 10 · 2021-06-11T10:48:48.310

Changing index.js to index.ts fixed this error for me. (I did not have any .ts files before this).

Note: remember to change anywhere you reference index.js to index.ts except of course, where you reference your main file. By convention this is probably in your lib or dist folders. My tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es2016",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "inlineSourceMap": true,
    "noImplicitAny": false
  }
}

My outDir is ./dist so I reference my main in my package.json as "main": "dist/index.js"

score 8 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 01 '20 at 18:11

8

"outDir"

Should be different from

"rootDir"

example

    "outDir": "./dist",
    "rootDir": "./src",

answered Mar 01 '20 at 18:11

FDisk

8,493
2
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Gru · Answer 12 · 2021-12-30T04:57:59.147

7

You need to have the root index.tsx or index.ts file for the tsc command to work.

edited Dec 30 '21 at 04:57

answered Jul 12 '21 at 13:29

Gru

817
13
20

score 7 · Answer 13 · answered Mar 01 '22 at 19:51

7

The solution that worked for me was to add a ./ before each include path in the config file:

"include": ["./src/**/*.d.ts", "./src/**/*.js", "./src/**/*.svelte"]

answered Mar 01 '22 at 19:51

Matt Parkins

24,208
8
50
59

score 5 · Answer 14 · answered Nov 09 '17 at 19:43

5

I added the following in the root ( visual studio )

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowJs": true,
    "noEmit": true,
    "module": "system",
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "removeComments": true,
    "preserveConstEnums": true,
    "sourceMap": true
  },
  "include": [
    "**/*"
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "assets",
    "node_modules",
    "bower_components",
    "jspm_packages"
  ],
  "typeAcquisition": {
    "enable": true
  }
}

answered Nov 09 '17 at 19:43

NicoJuicy

3,435
4
40
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3

Just an empty `"exclude": [ "" ]` works too (to override the default which is ./) – spygi Aug 15 '19 at 17:15

score 4 · Answer 15 · answered Jan 20 '21 at 23:59

Ok, in 2021, with a <project>/src/index.ts file, the following worked for me:

If VS Code complains with No inputs were found in config file... then change the include to…

"include": ["./src/**/*.ts"]

Found the above as a comment of How to Write Node.js Applications in Typescript

score 3 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 01 '17 at 22:24

3

When using Visual Studio Code, building the project (i.e. pressing Ctrl + Shift + B), moves your .ts file into the .vscode folder (I don't know why it does this), then generates the TS18003 error. What I did was move my .ts file out of the .vscode folder, back into the root folder and build the project again.

The project built successfully!

answered Jul 01 '17 at 22:24

1

it puts the **.tsconfig** file into the .vscode folder. If you move it out of the .vscode folder, you may also need to edit .vscode/tasks.json to point to the new location – duggulous Apr 11 '18 at 16:02

score 3 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 13 '17 at 17:24

3

add .ts file location in 'include' tag then compile work fine. ex.

"include": [
"wwwroot/**/*" ]

answered Dec 13 '17 at 17:24

Rajat Kumar

49
4

score 3 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 15 '19 at 12:15

I had to add the files item to the tsconfig.json file, like so:

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "es5",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "sourceMap": true,
    },
    "files": [
        "../MyFile.ts"
    ] 
}

More details here: https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/tsconfig-json.html

score 3 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 19 '21 at 20:31

3

For anyone experiencing the same error should try adding "node modules" to the exclude options

{
   "compilerOptions": {
     ...
   },
   "include": [
      "./src/**/*.ts"
   ],
   "exclude": [
      "./out.d.ts",
      "node_modules",
   ]
}

answered Apr 19 '21 at 20:31

Mayor

303
2
7

score 3 · Answer 20 · answered Dec 08 '21 at 01:32

My VSCode was giving me the squiggly line at the beginning of my tsconfig.json file, and had the same error, so

I made sure I had at least one .ts file in the folder specified in the "include" paths (one of the folders in the include path was empty and it was fine)
I simply closed the VSCode and opened it back up, and that fixed it. (sigh..)

My folder structure

    tsconfig.json
    package.json
    bar/
         myfile.ts
    lib/
         (no file)

My tsconfig.json

   "compilerOptions": { ... },
   "include": [
    "bar/**/*",
    "lib/**/*"
   ],
   "exclude": [
    ".webpack/**/*",
    ".vscode/**/*"
   ]

score 2 · Answer 21 · answered Oct 22 '18 at 10:02

2

If you don't want TypeScript compilation, disable it in your .csproj file, according to this post.

Just add the following line to your .csproj file:

<TypeScriptCompileBlocked>true</TypeScriptCompileBlocked>

answered Oct 22 '18 at 10:02

RubbelDieKatz

1,134
1
15
32

score 2 · Answer 22 · answered Oct 17 '22 at 08:09

2

Add one .ts file to your project root directory (same level as the.tsconfig file).

So in my case, I added one .ts file and named it: main.ts.

And inside my .tsconfig file I included main.ts.

{
  "include": ["src/**/*", "main.ts"]
}

answered Oct 17 '22 at 08:09

Tri Dawn

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6
11

Adding main.ts was sufficient for me. My initial tsconfig.json file created by `npx tsc --init` doesn't even mention an include field in all its comments, so I live without one currently. Update: Is `rootDir` is the new `include` I wonder? – Will Jun 08 '23 at 08:48

score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Nov 03 '17 at 11:27

1

Btw, just had the same problem.

If you had my case, then you probably have the tsconfig.json not in the same directory as the .ts file.

(In my case I stupidly had next to launch.json and tasks.json inside the .vscode folder :P)

answered Nov 03 '17 at 11:27

Tha Brad

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12

score 1 · Answer 24 · answered Nov 21 '17 at 03:27

1

I had existing tsconfig files for 4 existing projects in my solution. After upgrading to vs2017 I experienced this problem. It was fixed by adding the (supposedly default) include and exclude sections to the files, as described by NicoJuicy.

answered Nov 21 '17 at 03:27

Elroy Flynn

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1
24
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score 1 · Answer 25 · answered Nov 24 '21 at 19:58

1

You need to have two folders, one for the source (typescript) and another for the output (javascript).

tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
...
    "outDir": "out/", 
    "rootDir": "src/", 
...

answered Nov 24 '21 at 19:58

danilo

7,680
7
43
46

In my case adding the rootDir attribute worked to get ride of the error. VS2022 + Micorosoft.TypeScript.MSBuild 4.6.4. tsconfig.json in root of ASP.NET Core Web Project. Incude, exclude, typeRoots Attributes where already there and the error kept on comming, until rootDir was added. – Karl Apr 09 '22 at 06:00

MichaelDHaile · Answer 26 · 2021-12-28T19:44:02.983

1

If you are using VSCode, and you have several folders opened then you need to open the one folder you are working on for it to go away.

Wrong Opening of Folder Right Opening of Folder

edited Dec 28 '21 at 19:44

answered Dec 28 '21 at 19:35

MichaelDHaile

46
3

score 0 · Answer 27 · answered Mar 18 '19 at 09:54

I have a tsconfig.json file that doesn't apply to any .ts files. It's in a separate folder. Instead I only use it as a base for other tsconfig files via "extends": "../Configs/tsconfig.json". As soon as I renamed the base config file to something else e.g. base-tsconfig.json (and updated the extends statements) the error went away and the extending still worked.

score 0 · Answer 28 · answered Dec 12 '19 at 06:58

0

I got the same error and in my case it was because vscode couldn't recognize .ts file.

It was seeing it as text file and I had to rename it to remove one letter and add it back to make it work.

answered Dec 12 '19 at 06:58

Bakhtiiar Muzakparov

2,308
2
15
24

score 0 · Answer 29 · answered May 07 '20 at 17:41

I ran into this issue constantly while packing my projects into nugets via Visual Studio 2019. After looking for a solution for ages I seem to have solved this by following advice in this article

MSBuild & Typescript

especially part about <TypeScriptCompile /> where I included all my .ts resources with the Include operator and excluded others such as node_modules with the Remove operator. I then deleted the tsconfig.json file in each offending project and the nuget packages were generated and no more errors

score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Jul 24 '20 at 14:19

I received this same error when I made a backup copy of the node_modules folder in the same directory. I was in the process of trying to solve a different build error when this occurred. I hope this scenario helps someone. Remove the backup folder and the build will complete.

score 0 · Answer 31 · edited Apr 06 '21 at 23:41

0

I had the same error because I had this:

"include": [ 
    "wwwroot/ts/*.ts" 
  ],
  "exclude": [ 
    "node_modules",
    "wwwroot"
  ]

The error appear because the folder wwwroot appear in include and exclude, you should quit one of them.

edited Apr 06 '21 at 23:41

Dharman

30,962
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answered Apr 06 '21 at 23:35

Matias Novillo

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score 0 · Answer 32 · answered Feb 12 '22 at 14:51

0

I used that How to disable TypeScript compilation in .Net Core projects?

Because I use a template and those packages require for only my template. However I can see every packages' export in their node_module files. If you are in same situation you can use link above

answered Feb 12 '22 at 14:51

user9399896

27
1
7

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Feb 12 '22 at 17:01

score 0 · Answer 33 · answered Feb 05 '23 at 00:20

0

For me, the solution was pass the folder to local disc, before i am copy the folder to google drive repository (g:/). When back the copy all work fine.

answered Feb 05 '23 at 00:20

Mitolo

330
2
8

score -1 · Answer 34 · answered Sep 02 '21 at 21:31

-1

Make sure all your files has a correct name.

answered Sep 02 '21 at 21:31

Mostafa Saadatnia

802
8
20

tsconfig.json: Build:No inputs were found in config file

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