ts-node-dev fails with "Must use import to load ES Module" but tsc works fine

[mahdiahmadi73]

I’m facing an issue when using ts-node-dev to run my TypeScript project. Whenever I execute the following command (By npm run dev script):

ts-node-dev src/index.ts
I get this error:

Must use import to load ES Module: /path/to/src/index.ts
However, if I compile the code with tsc and run the compiled JavaScript file with Node.js, everything works perfectly:

tsc src/index.ts 
node dist/index.js

I have tried multiple solutions but nothing seems to fix the issue.

Project Setup:
File Structure:

/server
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── src
└── index.ts

package.json:

{
  "name": "server",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "ts-node-dev --esm src/index.ts",
    "build": "tsc"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.21.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "typescript": "^5.6.3",
    "ts-node": "^10.9.1",
    "ts-node-dev": "^2.0.0",
    "@types/node": "^22.9.1",
    "@types/express": "^4.17.17"
  }
}

tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "ESNext",
    "moduleResolution": "Node",
    "target": "ES6",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "outDir": "dist",
    "rootDir": "src"
  },
  "include": ["src/**/*"],
  "exclude": ["node_modules", "dist"]
}

src/index.ts:

import express from "express";

const app = express();

app.get("/", (req, res) => {
    res.send("Hello, world!");
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log("Server is running on http://localhost:3000");
});

The only solution I found is this
#314
To fix the issue, I replaced the ts-node-dev command with the following:

nodemon --exec node --loader ts-node/esm src/index.ts
This ensures:

1. nodemon watches for changes in the files and restarts the process automatically.
2. ts-node/esm handles TypeScript compilation and ES module support.

What I Tried Before:
Verified my Node.js version (v20) and ensured it supports ES modules.
Ensured ts-node and ts-node-dev are updated to their latest versions.
Tried adding and removing "type": "module" in package.json.
Added the --esm flag to the dev script:

"dev": "ts-node-dev --esm src/index.ts"

Tried replacing ts-node-dev with ts-node:

ts-node --esm src/index.ts
Still got this error :

Compiled with tsc and ran the output with node, which worked fine.

tsc /src/index.ts
node dist/index.js

OS version (is it docker or host?), ts-node-dev version
Mac OS 15.0.1( host) . ts-node-dev version : 2.0.0

Did you try to run with ts-node?
No
Did you try to run with --files option enabled?
No
Did you try to run with --debug option enabled?
No
Do you have a repro example (git repo) with simple steps to reproduce your problem?
No