From 755b4d93ebb31801e9ab13224a1c4b5184298bfe Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eli <88557639+lishaduck@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:41:51 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] feat: support build mode

---
 docs/guide/cli-generated.md                  |  7 +++++
 packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts   |  3 ++
 packages/vitest/src/node/types/config.ts     |  4 +++
 packages/vitest/src/typecheck/typechecker.ts | 29 ++++++++++++++------
 4 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/guide/cli-generated.md b/docs/guide/cli-generated.md
index 6b82b3926181..2127c7cc1016 100644
--- a/docs/guide/cli-generated.md
+++ b/docs/guide/cli-generated.md
@@ -742,6 +742,13 @@ Allow JavaScript files to be typechecked. By default takes the value from tsconf
 
 Ignore type errors from source files
 
+### typecheck.build
+
+- **CLI:** `--typecheck.build`
+- **Config:** [typecheck.build](/config/typecheck#typecheck-build)
+
+Use TypeScript build mode
+
 ### typecheck.tsconfig
 
 - **CLI:** `--typecheck.tsconfig <path>`
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
index ddf7641096b2..9dbb3b142d86 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/cli/cli-config.ts
@@ -685,6 +685,9 @@ export const cliOptionsConfig: VitestCLIOptions = {
       ignoreSourceErrors: {
         description: 'Ignore type errors from source files',
       },
+      build: {
+        description: 'Use TypeScript build mode',
+      },
       tsconfig: {
         description: 'Path to a custom tsconfig file',
         argument: '<path>',
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/types/config.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/types/config.ts
index e530e30e3ad3..160f7107d7e2 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/types/config.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/types/config.ts
@@ -989,6 +989,10 @@ export interface TypecheckConfig {
    * Do not fail, if Vitest found errors outside the test files.
    */
   ignoreSourceErrors?: boolean
+  /**
+   * Use TypeScript build mode.
+   */
+  build?: boolean
   /**
    * Path to tsconfig, relative to the project root.
    */
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/typecheck/typechecker.ts b/packages/vitest/src/typecheck/typechecker.ts
index 55340f10e0a4..2fd216a7779e 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/typecheck/typechecker.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/typecheck/typechecker.ts
@@ -294,16 +294,25 @@ export class Typechecker {
     const { root, watch, typecheck } = this.project.config
 
     const args = [
-      '--noEmit',
       '--pretty',
       'false',
-      '--incremental',
-      '--tsBuildInfoFile',
-      join(
-        process.versions.pnp ? join(os.tmpdir(), this.project.hash) : distDir,
-        'tsconfig.tmp.tsbuildinfo',
-      ),
     ]
+
+    if (typecheck.build) {
+      args.push('--build')
+    }
+    else {
+      args.push(
+        '--noEmit',
+        '--incremental',
+        '--tsBuildInfoFile',
+        join(
+          process.versions.pnp ? join(os.tmpdir(), this.project.hash) : distDir,
+          'tsconfig.tmp.tsbuildinfo',
+        ),
+      )
+    }
+
     // use builtin watcher because it's faster
     if (watch) {
       args.push('--watch')
@@ -312,7 +321,11 @@ export class Typechecker {
       args.push('--allowJs', '--checkJs')
     }
     if (typecheck.tsconfig) {
-      args.push('-p', resolve(root, typecheck.tsconfig))
+      if (!typecheck.build) {
+        args.push('-p')
+      }
+
+      args.push(resolve(root, typecheck.tsconfig))
     }
     this._output = ''
     this._startTime = performance.now()