Strip debug code

@ttsc/strip removes configured function calls and debugger statements from the emit. It’s not a minifier or tree-shaker, it removes exactly the patterns you list, nothing else.

Install


npm install -D @ttsc/strip


// tsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "plugins": [{ "transform": "@ttsc/strip" }]
  }
}

With no extra configuration, the defaults are:

console.log
console.debug
assert.*
debugger

So console.log(...) and debugger; disappear from your emit by default.

Custom patterns

Drop a strip.config.ts next to your tsconfig.json:


// strip.config.ts
import type { ITtscStripConfig } from "@ttsc/strip";
 
export default {
  calls: ["logger.debug", "metrics.devOnly", "assert.*"],
  statements: ["debugger"],
} satisfies ITtscStripConfig;

calls: statement-level calls. Supports a .* wildcard at the end (e.g. assert.* matches assert.equal, assert.deepStrictEqual, …).
statements: bare statements. Currently supports debugger.

@ttsc/strip discovers its config by walking upward from the tsconfig directory, looking for strip.config.{ts,cts,mts,js,cjs,mjs,json}. To point at a specific file, set configFile on the tsconfig entry:


// tsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "plugins": [
      { "transform": "@ttsc/strip", "configFile": "./config/strip.config.ts" }
    ]
  }
}

What “statement-level” means

The plugin only strips calls that are the entire statement:


console.log("debug");        // ← removed
const result = compute();
console.log(result);         // ← removed
 
const data = console.log("x"); // ← NOT removed (the call is an expression)

This is intentional, silently changing expressions can break code that depends on the call’s return value, however unusual that is.

Use cases

Production builds: strip console.log and debugger, keep console.warn and console.error.
Test code in published artifacts: strip assert.* from the package emit if your library uses node:assert internally.
Feature-flag tooling: wrap dev-only code in metrics.devOnly(...) calls that get stripped in prod.

When not to use this

If you want a real minifier (dead-code elimination, mangling, …), use Terser or esbuild via @ttsc/unplugin. @ttsc/strip is the targeted “remove these specific patterns” pass.