title: VSC Debugger throwing SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module
body: <p>Prior to some recent update of Visual Studio Code I was able to debug my Node.js Apps written in TypeScript with this <code>launch.json</code> configuration</p>
  <pre><code>{
      // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
      // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
      // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
      &quot;version&quot;: &quot;0.2.0&quot;,
      &quot;configurations&quot;: [
          {
              &quot;type&quot;: &quot;node&quot;,
              &quot;request&quot;: &quot;launch&quot;,
              &quot;name&quot;: &quot;Debug API&quot;,
              &quot;protocol&quot;: &quot;inspector&quot;,
              &quot;program&quot;: &quot;${workspaceFolder}/apps/api/src/main.ts&quot;,
              &quot;outFiles&quot;: [&quot;${workspaceFolder}/dist/apps/api/main.js&quot;],
              &quot;sourceMaps&quot;: true
          }
      ]
  }
  </code></pre>
  <p>But now I'm getting this error</p>
  <pre><code>import * as express from 'express';
  ^^^^^^
  
  SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module
      at wrapSafe (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1054:16)
      at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1102:27)
      at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1158:10)
      at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:986:32)
      at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:879:14)
      at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (internal/modules/run_main.js:71:12)
      at internal/main/run_main_module.js:17:47
  Process exited with code 1
  </code></pre>
  <p>Any idea of how can I fix this? Or at least make it work while VSC Team provides an answer on their GitHub <a href="https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/102834" rel="noreferrer">https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/102834</a></p>