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So here is my VS code launch.json file:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "type": "chrome",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Launch Chrome against localhost",
            "url": "http://localhost:4321",
            "port": 9222,
            "webRoot": "${workspaceFolder}"
        }
    ]
}

What I want is run npm start command right before debugging begins i.e running dev server then launching a Chrome instance and navigating to the provided url.

So, I added the following snippet to the config file and ran the debug:

            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "runtimeExecutable": "npm",
            "runtimeArgs": [
               "start"
            ]

but I got the this error:

Attribute runtimeExecutable does not exist ('npm')

Any help?

Answers

Found the solution: I need a preLaunchTask

launch.json:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Launch Chrome against localhost",
            ...
            // This runs dev server before debugger
            "preLaunchTask": "start-dev-server",
        }
    ]
}

tasks.json:

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "start-dev-server",
            "type": "npm",
            "script": "start",
            "isBackground": true,
            "problemMatcher": {
                "owner": "npm",
                "background": {
                    "activeOnStart": true,
                     "beginsPattern": ".*",
                     "endsPattern": "Finished.+"
                },
                "pattern": {
                    "regexp": "",
                }
            }
        },
    ]
}