Build typescript vue apps with only babel?

How can I transpile and build my typescript vue app with only babel? I used the vue-cli-service extensively but reached a point where I just need a minimal setup, without webpack or anything.

My .babelrc

{
    "presets": ["babel-preset-typescript-vue"],
    "plugins": ["@babel/plugin-transform-typescript"]
}

My package.json dependencies:

"devDependencies": {
    "@babel/cli": "^7.10.5",
    "@babel/plugin-transform-typescript": "^7.11.0",
    "@babel/preset-env": "^7.11.0",
    "babel-loader": "^8.1.0",
    "babel-preset-env": "^1.7.0",
    "babel-preset-typescript-vue": "^1.1.1",
    "typescript": "~3.9.3",
    "vue-template-compiler": "^2.6.11"
},
"dependencies": {
    "vue": "^2.6.12",
    "vue-class-component": "^7.2.3",
    "vue-property-decorator": "^8.4.2",
    "vuex": "^3.5.1"
}

My entry main.ts file:

import Vue from 'vue'
import Vuex from 'vuex';
import App from './App.vue'

Vue.config.productionTip = false;
Vue.use(Vuex);
    
new Vue({render: h => h(App)}).$mount('#app');

My App.vue

<script lang="ts">
    import {Component, Vue} from 'vue-property-decorator';

    @Component
    class App extends Vue {}

    export default App;
</script>
    
<template>
    <div class="foobar">Babel worked</div>
</template>

My build script:

babel src/main.ts --out-dir build

Answer

Unfortunately you cannot build with babel, as it only transpiles languages and it cannot build modules. You will still need some type of bundler to resolve require / import imports. If you don’t want giant hefty webpack configs you can look at Rollup or Parcel

If you want to actually just compile you typescript and vue typescript you need to install @babel/preset-typescript @babel/preset-env, include them in .babelrc file.

Then use babel ./src/main.ts --out-dir build --extensions ".ts" or better yet use locally installed babel ./node_modules/.bin/babel ./src/main.ts --out-dir build --extensions ".ts"