diff --git a/extensions/npm/src/npmView.ts b/extensions/npm/src/npmView.ts
index 3bf86c5b1e2..d4d5279e9a4 100644
--- a/extensions/npm/src/npmView.ts
+++ b/extensions/npm/src/npmView.ts
@@ -164,10 +164,14 @@ export class NpmScriptsTreeDataProvider implements TreeDataProvider<TreeItem> {
 	private extractDebugArg(scripts: any, task: Task): [string, number] | undefined {
 		let script: string = scripts[task.name];
 
-		let match = script.match(/--(inspect|debug)(-brk)?(=(\d*))?/);
+		// matches --debug, --debug=1234, --debug-brk, debug-brk=1234, --inspect, 
+		// --inspect=1234, --inspect-brk, --inspect-brk=1234, 
+		// --inspect=localhost:1245, --inspect=127.0.0.1:1234, --inspect=[aa:1:0:0:0]:1234, --inspect=:1234
+		let match = script.match(/--(inspect|debug)(-brk)?(=((\[[0-9a-fA-F:]*\]|[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+|[a-zA-Z0-9\.]*):)?(\d+))?/);
+
 		if (match) {
-			if (match[4]) {
-				return [match[1], parseInt(match[4])];
+			if (match[6]) {
+				return [match[1], parseInt(match[6])];
 			}
 			if (match[1] === 'inspect') {
 				return [match[1], 9229];