Alternatively, you can attach the debugger to an already running Node process. To do this, start your Node program with the inspector enabled (e.g. node --inspect-brk app.js to break on the first line, or node --inspect app.js to just listen). Then use a configuration with "request": "attach", specifying the "port" (default 9229 for Node inspector) and "address" (e.g. "localhost" if running locally). For example:

{
	"type": "node",
	"request": "attach",
	"name": "Attach to Node",
	"address": "localhost",
	"port": 9229
}

When you start this attach config (F5), Visual Studio Code will try to attach to Node on that host/port. This is useful for debugging scenarios where the Node process is launched outside Visual Studio Code (for instance, via a terminal or a nodemon process). Visual Studio Code can also auto-attach to Node processes run in the integrated terminal if you enable it (more on this in Lesser-Known Features).