The Build Action property (F4) for the `tsconfig.json` file has to be set to `Content`. Otherwise Visual Studio ignores this file since VS 2019. There is a downside though: After this change VS 2017 will complain about the Build Action: > Error > NETSDK1022 > > Duplicate 'Content' items were included. The .NET SDK includes > 'Content' items from your project directory by default. You can either > remove these items from your project file, or set the > 'EnableDefaultContentItems' property to 'false' if you want to > explicitly include them in your project file. For more information, > see https://aka.ms/sdkimplicititems. The duplicate items were: > 'tsconfig.json'