Development & Testing

Nodemon File Watching

Automatically restart Node.js applications when file changes are detected, enabling rapid development iteration.

Claude Code Codex Copilot Cursor Gemini CLI Windsurf

Overview

Nodemon is a utility that monitors for any changes in your source code and automatically restarts your Node.js application. It is a drop-in replacement for the node command during development, eliminating the manual stop-and-start cycle that slows down iteration. AI agents can configure nodemon for complex projects with custom watch paths, ignore patterns, and execution commands.

Your AI agent can set up nodemon.json with precise configuration: watching specific directories, ignoring test files and build output, setting delay timers to batch rapid changes, and configuring execution commands for TypeScript (via ts-node) or other transpiled languages. The agent can also use nodemon's event hooks to trigger additional actions on restart.

While modern tools like Vite and tsx offer built-in watch modes, nodemon remains essential for Express servers, API backends, CLI tools, and any Node.js process that needs automatic restarting. Your AI agent can integrate nodemon into package.json scripts for a seamless development experience.

Who Is This For?

Backend developers auto-restarting Express or Fastify servers during development
Teams running TypeScript servers with ts-node and automatic restarts
Developers building CLI tools that need rapid iteration cycles
Engineers configuring development scripts with custom watch patterns

Installation

Setup for Claude Code

npm install -D nodemon
Claude Code runs: npx nodemon src/server.ts

Configuration

// nodemon.json
{
  "watch": ["src"],
  "ext": "ts,json",
  "ignore": ["src/**/*.spec.ts", "dist"],
  "exec": "ts-node src/server.ts",
  "delay": 1000
}