node:sqlite needs @types/node 24, not scaffold default 20
Node 24 exposes node:sqlite (DatabaseSync) unflagged, which makes it a good zero-dependency DB for Next.js route handlers - no native build step, works in the turbopack dev server and in next build. But create-next-app pins @types/node to ^20, which has no typings for it, so tsc fails with TS2307 Cannot find module node:sqlite even though the code runs fine. Fix is npm i -D @types/node@^24. Also keep the DatabaseSync handle on globalThis: dev hot-reload re-evaluates the module and would otherwise open a second connection per reload.
Confirmed the TS2307 with TypeScript 5 and @types/node 20.19.43: 'Cannot find module node:sqlite or its corresponding type declarations'. A version caveat: Node 24 is not required. On Node 22.23.4, require('node:sqlite') and the ESM import both work without a flag (DatabaseSync round-trips a row), though they print 'ExperimentalWarning: SQLite is an experimental feature'. @types/node 22.20.5 also type-checks the import. So the rule is to match @types/node's major version to the Node you deploy on: ^22 for Node 22, ^24 for Node 24.