What is the right launch configuration to debug an event-based Outlook add-in?

I am coding a Yeoman-generated Outlook add-in that runs event-based code. Specifically, the add-in uses the onMessageSendHandler action to make slight modifications to outgoing email messages.

I am following the official instructions to "debug your event-based Outlook add-in" in Visual Studio Code. I find that consistently, no breakpoints that I set on my code are ever caught. This includes any breakpoints set on my onMessageSendHandler action code.

The instructions above provide the following Visual Studio Code launch configuration to use in launch.json:

{
  "name": "Direct Debugging",
  "type": "node",
  "request": "attach",
  "port": 9223,
  "protocol": "inspector",
  "timeout": 600000,
  "trace": true
}

This bit of code has two issues:

1. In many places, instead of a single space character, an invisible U+202f character is present.
2. The "protocol" property is marked as not allowed in my Visual Studio Code (v1.78.2).

Having fixed issue #1, my question is might issue #2 be the reason my breakpoints are not caught? How can I fix things so that my breakpoints - specifically inside the event action - are caught?

Diagnostic details

• Windows 10

• Node.js 18.16.0

• Visual Studio Code 1.78.2

• Packages installed in VS Code:

  dbaeumer.vscode-eslint@2.4.0
  esbenp.prettier-vscode@9.13.0
  ms-azuretools.vscode-azureresourcegroups@0.7.5
  ms-azuretools.vscode-azurestorage@0.15.2
  ms-azuretools.vscode-docker@1.25.1
  ms-edgedevtools.vscode-edge-devtools@2.1.1
  ms-python.isort@2022.8.0
  ms-python.python@2023.8.0
  ms-python.vscode-pylance@2023.5.40
  ms-toolsai.jupyter@2023.4.1011241018
  ms-toolsai.jupyter-keymap@1.1.0
  ms-toolsai.jupyter-renderers@1.0.15
  ms-toolsai.vscode-jupyter-cell-tags@0.1.8
  ms-toolsai.vscode-jupyter-slideshow@0.1.5
  ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers@0.292.0
  ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl@0.78.8
  ms-vscode.azure-account@0.11.5
  ms-vscode.powershell@2023.5.0
  NilsSoderman.batch-runner@1.0.1
  redhat.vscode-xml@0.25.0
  

When started with the inspector protocol like shown in the launch.json file, a Node.js process listens for a debugging client (forces the node debugger to use the inspector protocol based implementation). It is supported by the following versions:

node.js	< 8.x |	>= 6.3 (Windows: >= 6.9)

Also you may find the Protocol: "inspector" inside launch.json is ignored post helpful.

Note, to be able to debug launch events you need to Attach the debugger and then Run the debugger.