[tsserver] Make "configure excludes" warning more debuggable

🔍 Search Terms

To enable project-wide JavaScript/TypeScript language features

exclude large folders

configure excludes

✅ Viability Checklist

• This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript/JavaScript code
• This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
• This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
• This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, new syntax sugar for JS, etc.)
• This isn't a request to add a new utility type: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/No-New-Utility-Types
• This feature would agree with the rest of our Design Goals: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/TypeScript-Design-Goals

⭐ Suggestion

Make "configure excludes" warning more debuggable

Context

In some scenarios, one may get the following warning in VSCode from tsserver, together with "Configure excludes" button in the status bar in bottom-right:

To enable project-wide JavaScript/TypeScript language features, exclude large folders with source files that you do not work on.

When this happens, "find references" and other VSCode features do not work.

Problem

This warning is not very debuggable; the burden is on the user to guess possible causes. Maybe they checked in some file(s) recently that trigger it; maybe they did a local build which produced a lot of artifacts which is picked by include but not in exclude list. etc.

In a huge monorepo, finding this out is difficult.

Also it's not clear what is the root cause of this warning:

• is it about large number of files?
• is it about large size of files? (individual files size? sum?)
• is it about .js files only? .ts files? other types?

In my tsserver.log (which is 100k+ lines), I found some largeFileReferenced logs, I fixed those, but it didn't fix the issue. I also found some Non TS file size exceeded limit logs. But in any case it's just my random guesses, not sure if this is linked to the problem.

Solution

• The warning in VSCode should be more actionable / debuggable. Perhaps it should link to a help article or a GH issue?
• There should be enough info in tsserver.log to make it debuggable.
• The help article should explain how to analyze tsserver.log to find relevant info.

📃 Motivating Example

Past discussions where people report the warning but don't provide repro (probably because they don't understand why the issue happens), example: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/53492

💻 Use Cases

1. What do you want to use this for?

When I get the warning about "configure excludes" I want to know exactly what to look for. Should I look for large files? (define how large?) Should I look for large folders? (define how large?)

2. What shortcomings exist with current approaches?
3. What workarounds are you using in the meantime?

Random guesses + git bisect.

Start by reproducing the VSCode "Configure excludes" warning and examining the referenced tsserver.log entries, including largeFileReferenced and Non TS file size exceeded limit. Determine what information users need to identify the cause, then verify that the warning, log output, or help article makes the investigation actionable.