Cannot find Node process using VSCode Debugger - node.js

Question

I'm testing out the VS Code node debugger, but I'm not able to find any node processes when trying to attach to a running process.
This is my launch.json file:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"type": "node",
"request": "attach",
"name": "Attach by Process ID",
"processId": "${command:PickProcess}"
}
]
}
the contents of my package.json file:
"scripts": {
"start": "node --inspect=0.0.0.0:9229 ./bin/www"
}
After I start up the process using 'npm start', I press 'start debug' and the list of node processes is:
1 sssd_pam
1 sssd_nss
1 sssd_be
Looks like this and none of these are the server I just launched.
This list persists even after I take down the node server.
Why am I not able to see any of my running node processes in the VSCode process attach?
P.s. I'm closely following this tutorial on debugging Node.js with VS Code.

Answer 1

Are you running the NodeJS in debug mode inside npm start? You need to use the --inspect flag. Without this flag, the NodeJS interpreter won't open the debug port to the VSCode to attach to.
Refer to: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/debugging-getting-started/
Another option is to attach using a port definition. I usually do something like this in the launch.json:
{
"type": "node",
"request": "attach",
"name": "Attach",
"port": 9229,
"restart": true,
"sourceMaps": true,
"protocol": "inspector"
}
Then I start the NodeJS process as: node --inspect=0.0.0.0:9229 start.js