Error: Cannot find module '../lib/tsc.js'

Question

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🔧 Issue: Azure App Service Fails on tsc – Cannot Find Module ../lib/tsc.js

Hi Azure team 👋

I’m deploying a Node.js + TypeScript server to Azure App Service, and the container fails to start due to a TypeScript compilation error. Here’s the full error log during the npm start phase:

Error: Cannot find module '../lib/tsc.js'
Require stack:
- /home/site/wwwroot/node_modules/.bin/tsc

🔍 Context:

• I’m using Node.js v22.x and npm 10.x

• App is built with TypeScript and compiled using tsc

• My package.json includes a prestart hook that runs tsc:

"scripts": {
  "build": "tsc",
  "start": "npm run clean && npm run build && node dist/index.js",
  "clean": "rm -rf dist",
  "prestart": "npm run build"
}

✅ What I’ve Tried:

• typescript is included in my project as a devDependency ✅

"typescript": "^5.8.2" is present in devDependencies

• I also tried moving it to dependencies to ensure it’s installed in production ✅

• I removed prestart and precompiled locally before deploy ✅

• I confirmed that tsconfig.json is in place and compiles locally ✅

• I set NODE_ENV=development in App Settings ✅

• I’m using App Service Linux with Node.js, not Functions

🧪 Local build + run works perfectly:

npm install
npm run build
npm start

But on Azure, I always hit:

MODULE_NOT_FOUND: Cannot find module '../lib/tsc.js'

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❓ Questions:

1. Is there a known issue with tsc in Azure App Service’s container image (Node 22)?

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Any insight would be super appreciated. Happy to provide deployment method or repo if needed.

Thanks in advance! 🙏