How do I use .env and ormconfig.ts to connect to my database?

Question

I am using NestJS and TypeORM and want to connect to my postgres database. But I am getting all kinds of errors. I am pretty sure it has to do with the ormconfig.ts and the entities in there. This is the file right now:

require('dotenv').config();

module.exports = {
    host: process.env.DB_HOST,
    type: 'postgres',
    port: process.env.DB_PORT,
    username: process.env.DB_USER,
    password: process.env.DB_PASS,
    database: process.env.DB_NAME,
    synchronize: true,
    entities: [__dirname + '/../**/*.entity.{js,ts}'],
};

and I am getting SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module Error in my Entity File that looks like this:

import { BaseEntity, Column, Entity, PrimaryGeneratedColumn } from "typeorm";

@Entity()
export class Software extends BaseEntity {
    @PrimaryGeneratedColumn()
    id: number;

    @Column()
    name: string;

    @Column()
    description: string; 
}

Fixes that I have tried:

• Adding

{
  // ...
  "type": "module",
  // ...
}

to my package.json from this question "Uncaught SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module" when importing ECMAScript 6 (then I get Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", { value: true }); ReferenceError: exports is not defined)

• changing entities: [__dirname + '/../**/*.entity.{js,ts}'] in the ormconfig.ts to autoLoadEntities: true,, but then I get EntityMetadataNotFound: No metadata for "Software" was found.

• not using the path, but instead do entities: [Software] in ormconfig.ts, but it doesnt like the import statement SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module in the ormconfig.ts

It seems like everytime I fix one error, there is another one right away. Does anyone have any ideas as to why it might not work?