Why does VSCode not detect venv if the venv folder is installed inside a subdirectory?

Question

I have been working with FastAPI and when done alone, venv works just fine with VSCode.

If I create a full-stack app the editor does not detect it (defaults to regular Python 3.9.4) and some Python imports cannot be found. I try looking for it and venv does not appear. It doesn't matter if I already activated it (the little venv icon appears on the terminal).

This is how the folder structure looks simplified:

full-stack-app

• .git
• frontend
• backend
  • main.py
  • venv

I even tried running code. on the main directory as some suggested in other answers and no go (just Python 3.9.4. However, if I cd into backend and then run code. the interpreter defaults to the correct venv.

What is the correct practice for such a situation so that I can create a full-stack app and open the project at the top level without any trouble from venv?

Answer 1

Sorry, I test it locally, but it can detect the subfolder virtual environment.

If it still does not work, you can set python.venvPath in the User settings.json file:

Virtual environments located in the folder identified by the python.venvPath setting (see General settings), which can contain multiple virtual environments. The extension looks for virtual environments in the first-level subfolders of venvPath.

You can get more information from the official docs .