How to fix Cannot read configuration file 'tsconfig.json' in TypeScript

First, check that tsconfig.json is present in the root directory of your TypeScript project. Use your file explorer or run this command:

ls -la tsconfig.json

If the file is not found, you need to create it.

If tsconfig.json doesn't exist, generate a default one using TypeScript's initialization command:

npx tsc --init

This creates a valid tsconfig.json file with sensible defaults for your project. You can then customize it as needed.

Copy the contents of your tsconfig.json and paste it into an online JSON validator like https://jsonlint.com/ to check for syntax errors. Common issues include:

// Wrong - trailing comma
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2020",
  }
}

// Correct
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2020"
  }
}

Fix any JSON syntax errors the validator reports.

Ensure you're running the TypeScript compiler from the directory containing tsconfig.json. For example:

cd /path/to/project
npx tsc

Don't run tsc from a parent directory unless you explicitly specify the configuration file path:

npx tsc -p ./my-project/tsconfig.json

If your tsconfig.json uses the extends property, verify the referenced file exists:

{
  "extends": "./tsconfig.base.json",
  "compilerOptions": {}
}

Ensure tsconfig.base.json (or whatever file is referenced) exists in the same directory. If using npm packages like @tsconfig/recommended, install them first:

npm install --save-dev @tsconfig/recommended

If you're using ESLint, ts-node, or other tools that reference tsconfig.json, configure them to find it correctly. For ESLint, update .eslintrc.js:

module.exports = {
  parser: '@typescript-eslint/parser',
  parserOptions: {
    project: 'tsconfig.json',
    tsconfigRootDir: __dirname,
  },
};

The tsconfigRootDir tells the tool to resolve tsconfig.json relative to the configuration file's directory, not the current working directory.

On Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS), check that you have read permissions on tsconfig.json:

ls -l tsconfig.json

If permissions are restricted (e.g., ----------), add read permission:

chmod +r tsconfig.json