VSCode and Debugging Python in Virtual Environments

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This post is really for me more than anyone else. I will be able to come back here and find it. If it helps you as well, then great.

I have historically not been a Python programmer. Additionally, I have historically used Visual Studio versus VSCode. Lately, I have been doing Python in VSCode. I need to learn my way around.

I recently found how to debug Python with breakpoints and watches in a virtual environment, or at least in the default “-m venv” virtual environment, much as I would in a different language in Visual Studio .

You can have the debug window create a launch.json in the .vscode folder of the root workspace directory or create it yourself from scratch. Here is one of my modified ones.

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Python: crewai series day_04",
            "type": "debugpy",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "env": {
                "PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}\\crewai_series"
            },
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}\\crewai_series\\day_04\\src"
        },
        {
            "name": "Python: crewai series day_05",
            "type": "debugpy",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "env": {
                "PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}\\crewai_series"
            },
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}\\crewai_series\\day_05\\src"
        }
    ]
}

The real trick is to set that PYTHONPATH property to your folder with the virtual environment folder as a top-level subdirectory.

Bonus: you set different debug profiles like I did above and shift between them in the debug window. That is helpful when you have different virtual environments in the same workspace.

That’s it. That’s the post.