Can I add a debug script to NPM?

VS Code adds a debug button inline in the package.json file

1. Open package.json and click debug above scripts section

   

2. Select script to debug

   

3. Debugger should be attached

   

In your package.json define the script

"scripts": {
  "debug": "node --inspect server.js"
}

And then you can use npm's run-script

npm run-script debug

or the shorter version

npm run debug

From the nodejs docs:

The legacy debugger has been deprecated as of Node 7.7.0. Please use --inspect and Inspector instead.

So starting from Node 7.7.0v use --inspect