Node.js Gains Experimental Native TypeScript Support

Node.js recently merged PR #53725 which adds an experimental flag --experimental-strip-types. When this flag is enabled, Node.js can execute .ts files directly, automatically transpiling the TypeScript source to JavaScript without performing any type checking, so no external transpilation dependencies are required.

For example, running node index.ts on the following TypeScript code: const foo: string = "foo"; produces the JavaScript output: const foo = "foo"; The transpilation process discards all type information, and certain TypeScript‑only features such as enum and namespace are not supported at this stage.

The implementation relies on the @swc/wasm-typescript package, a lightweight wasm bundle that provides the binding needed for the conversion. This package is also used by Deno and has been tested in production scenarios.

Current limitations include:

Unsupported TypeScript features that require transformation, such as enums and namespaces.

.ts files cannot be imported with a .js extension.

TypeScript files inside node_modules cannot be executed.

No source‑map support; the runtime replaces removed code with spaces to keep original stack traces, referencing the related sourcemap discussion.

This PR represents the first step toward experimental TypeScript support; further work is outlined in the experimental TS support roadmap linked in the references.

References:

PR #53725: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/53725

Sourcemaps issue: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/53725#issuecomment-2209238883

Experimental TS support roadmap: https://github.com/nodejs/loaders/issues/217