VS code extension dependencies not being deployed when debugging? - visual-studio-code

Question

Running Visual Studio Code 1.52.1.
I created a simple VS Code extension as described in this tutorial. Then I added a dependency as shown below. The problem is that this dependency does not seem to get deployed when debugging.
package.json
"dependencies": {
"#types/markdown-table": "^2.0.0"
}
And the actual import looks like this:
import * as table from 'markdown-table'
Then I hit F5 just as described in the linked tutorial. When my registered command is run, I get the following error message:
Activating extension 'undefined_publisher.hello-world' failed: Cannot
find module 'markdown-table'
For completeness, here is the generated tsconfig.json:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"module": "commonjs",
"target": "es6",
"outDir": "out",
"lib": [
"es6"
],
"sourceMap": true,
"rootDir": "src",
"strict": true
},
"exclude": [
"node_modules",
".vscode-test"
]
}

Answer 1

Should be able to add a preLaunchTask.
For Example in .vscode/launch.json:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Run Extension",
"type": "extensionHost",
"request": "launch",
"runtimeExecutable": "${execPath}",
"args": ["--extensionDevelopmentPath=${workspaceFolder}"],
"preLaunchTask": "npm: build"
}
]
}