Could not resolve import when running es-dev-server with custom npm package

Hi i am creating 2 simple test projects where project A is a custom NPM package and project B consume it. When running it through es-dev-server i get Error: Could not resolve import “npm-project-a” in “src/index.ts”.

My folder structure looks like this:

project-a/src/index.ts

export function MRTAdd(v1: number, v2: number): number {
    return v1 + v2;
}

project-a/package.json

{
  "name": "npm-project-a",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "dist/index.js",
  "types": "dist/index.d.ts",
  "module": "commonjs",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "lodash": "^4.17.21"
  }
}

project-a/tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es2016",
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "module": "commonjs",
    "declaration": true,
    "declarationMap": true,
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "skipLibCheck": true
  }
}

Next i ran npm build which gives me the tsc build inside dist folder

Next step i did is to npm link inside root of project-a, and then in project-b i npm link npm-project-a

Now inside project-b/src/index.ts

import { MRTAdd } from 'npm-project-a';

console.log(MRTAdd(1, 2));

My index.html is referencing <script src="index.ts"></script>
Then when running command in project-b/package.json

"scripts": {
  "start": "es-dev-server --app-index src/index.html --node-resolve --watch --open"
},

i get this error

Please advise!