Issue with TypeORM decorators when running vitest in TypeScript project

[carlosmoliv]

I'm working with TypeORM and I noticed that my code is not working when I don't explicitly set the column type, for example @column({ type: 'varchar' }).

I've already added "experimentalDecorators": true and "emitDecoratorMetadata": true to the tsconfig.json file and imported reflect-metadata at the entry point of the API, but the issue persists. Can anyone suggest what else I could be missing or any potential solutions to this problem?

The typeorm entity:

@Entity({ name: 'addresses' })
export class AddressDbModel {
  @Column()
  street: string;

  @Column()
  stretNumber: number;

  @Column()
  neighborhood: string;

  @Column()
  city: string;

  @Column()
  state: string;

  @Column()
  zipCode: string;

  @Column({ nullable: true })
  complement: string;

  @Column({ nullable: true })
  country: string;
}

[sheremet-va]

emitDecoratorMetadata is not supported by esbuild: evanw/esbuild#257

[thiagomini]

Hey, @carlosmoliv. Install the following package: unplugin-swc

then, add this configuration to the vitest config file:

import swc from 'unplugin-swc';

export default defineConfig({
  test: {
   // ... configs
  },
  // add the line below
  plugins: [swc.vite()],
});

[ValentinGurkov]

@eremzeit Can you share what was the reason the decorators were not executing? I'm facing the same thing...

[byrpatrick]

Hey @thiagomini thanks for this suggestion, it fixed an error I was having when writing a test for a Next API Route using Next API Decorators and Node Mocks Http. 💯

[KiddoV]

Not working with my Svelte + Vite project. When added plugins: [swc.vite()],, the page just came blank and no errors popup.

[okanaslan]

I get the following error when I try to run Typeorm tests with Vitest & unplugin-swc package.

[Nest] 69877  - 06/24/2025, 10:23:25 PM   ERROR [TypeOrmModule] Unable to connect to the database. Retrying (3)...
SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier 'Relation'
    at compileSourceTextModule (node:internal/modules/esm/utils:344:16)
    at ModuleLoader.importSyncForRequire (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:420:18)
    at loadESMFromCJS (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1561:24)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1712:5)
    at Object..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1895:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1465:32)
    at Function._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1282:12)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:235:24)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1487:12)

[linonetwo]

Thank you! This works for me!