I don’t like atom at all (visual studio code/ spacemacs fan)

Tern is for javascript ..
First you need to install it on your system.
Spacemacs js layer

But I prefer visual studio code for js editing

Our spacemacs wiki

the problem is with the PATH not finding the tern binary when using spotlight.

but if I use open /Applications/Emacs.app --args --debug-init (fish shell, iterm), it works fine.

which emacs returns /usr/bin/emacs, which isn’t what I installed.

ok so can you just specify tern location in spacemacs config file when you define javascript layer?
I think this should fix problem
(javascript :variables tern-command '("node" "/path/to/tern/bin/tern"))

PS
But any way you won’t find better editor for javascript than visual studio code

• node.js debugging
• typescript definitions: you can download typescript definition for library for example jquery and then you have documentation, code hints for this library

I’ve given up on Atom. Atom on my Mac always got frozen in about 3 minutes and prompt “wait or close”. I’ve tried Emacs, Spacemacs and Vim each for a while. Finally I think VS Code fits me the best and it’s very stable.