diff --git a/src/plugins/apm_oss/tsconfig.json b/src/plugins/apm_oss/tsconfig.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..aeb6837c69a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/plugins/apm_oss/tsconfig.json
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+{
+  "extends": "../../../tsconfig.base.json",
+  "compilerOptions": {
+    "composite": true,
+    "outDir": "./target/types",
+    "emitDeclarationOnly": true,
+    "declaration": true,
+    "declarationMap": true
+  },
+  "include": [
+    "common/**/*",
+    "public/**/*",
+    "server/**/*",
+    // have to declare *.json explicitly due to https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/25636
+    "server/tutorial/index_pattern.json"
+  ],
+  "references": [{ "path": "../../core/tsconfig.json" }, { "path": "../home/tsconfig.json" }]
+}
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 75e1b097c734..d882697bbf48 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
   "exclude": [
     "src/**/__fixtures__/**/*",
     "src/core/**/*",
+    "src/plugins/apm_oss/**/*",
     "src/plugins/bfetch/**/*",
     "src/plugins/data/**/*",
     "src/plugins/dev_tools/**/*",
@@ -28,7 +29,7 @@
     "src/plugins/telemetry_collection_manager/**/*",
     "src/plugins/ui_actions/**/*",
     "src/plugins/url_forwarding/**/*",
-    "src/plugins/usage_collection/**/*",
+    "src/plugins/usage_collection/**/*"
     // In the build we actually exclude **/public/**/* from this config so that
     // we can run the TSC on both this and the .browser version of this config
     // file, but if we did it during development IDEs would not be able to find
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@
   ],
   "references": [
     { "path": "./src/core/tsconfig.json" },
+    { "path": "./src/plugins/apm_oss/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/bfetch/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/data/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/dev_tools/tsconfig.json" },
@@ -58,6 +60,6 @@
     { "path": "./src/plugins/telemetry_collection_manager/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/ui_actions/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/url_forwarding/tsconfig.json" },
-    { "path": "./src/plugins/usage_collection/tsconfig.json" },
+    { "path": "./src/plugins/usage_collection/tsconfig.json" }
   ]
 }
diff --git a/tsconfig.refs.json b/tsconfig.refs.json
index 282bf7fb1f01..c712d46204f3 100644
--- a/tsconfig.refs.json
+++ b/tsconfig.refs.json
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
   "include": [],
   "references": [
     { "path": "./src/core/tsconfig.json" },
+    { "path": "./src/plugins/apm_oss/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/bfetch/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/data/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/dev_tools/tsconfig.json" },
@@ -23,6 +24,6 @@
     { "path": "./src/plugins/telemetry_collection_manager/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/ui_actions/tsconfig.json" },
     { "path": "./src/plugins/url_forwarding/tsconfig.json" },
-    { "path": "./src/plugins/usage_collection/tsconfig.json" },
+    { "path": "./src/plugins/usage_collection/tsconfig.json" }
   ]
 }