This is how I initialize a Node.js project:

1. Initialize a new Node.js project using pnpm:

   pnpm init --init-type=module --init-package-manager

2. If the project is not going to be open source, remove the default license field from package.json:

   pnpm pkg delete license

3. Install TypeScript and types for Node.js:

   pnpm add -D typescript @types/node@24.x @tsconfig/node24

4. Set up tsconfig.json file (more info):

   cat > tsconfig.json <<'EOF'
   {
     "extends": "@tsconfig/node24/tsconfig.json",
     "compilerOptions": {
       "verbatimModuleSyntax": true,
       "allowImportingTsExtensions": true,
       "noEmit": true
     }
   }
   EOF

5. Add .gitignore:

   wget -O .gitignore https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gitignore/refs/heads/main/Node.gitignore

6. Add node script to let me use pnpm node command to run Node.js with TypeScript support:

   pnpm pkg set scripts.node="node --experimental-transform-types"