[FIXED] How to set the root directory for Visual Studio Code Python Extension?

Issue

I have no trouble running and debugging my project with VSCode Python Extension (ms-python.python), but since python sub-project root directory is not the whole project directory, all imports from my sources are underlined with red color and are listed in the problems and so Go to definition and some similar features don't work properly. How can I tell the IDE where's the start point of my project:

Whole Project path:
  docs
  server
    entities
      user.py
      customer.py
  env
  viewer
  db

The server directory is where the imports path are started from:

from entities.user import User

Solution

You can create a .env file with:

PYTHONPATH=server

That will add your server folder to PYTHONPATH as needed.

(You may need to restart VSCode for it to take PYTHONPATH into account correctly.)

Edited to clarify...

Create a file named .env under the repo root e.g. your_repo/.env.

Also creating the file under the folder where your consuming code is, instead of under repo root, seems to work e.g. your_repo/service/.env.

For more details, see documentation on environment variable definition files.

For me this worked without restarting VSC, perhaps this is a matter of newer VSC and extensions versions.

Answered By - Brett Cannon