The python path in your debug configuration is invalid visual studio code ошибка

This Visual Studio Code Python error happens when you have specified an invalid path to a Python interpreter in your .vscode/launch.json file in your project directory. You can fix it by either specifying the correct path, or removing the pythonPath attribute altogether. Also check that you have the correct environment selected in the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).

So I happened to inherit someone else’s code on a project. And that project used Visual Studio Code, pretty extensively. Not being familiar at all with VS Code (and also never wanting to get familiar with it), I went into the project a little naively. Assuming it was like a normal, modern, well-behaved IDE that didn’t have magical hidden files associated with it that drastically affected its behavior, I didn’t bother looking for any. Boy, was I wrong.

I happily worked on the Python code that fell into my lap for a while, then ran into a situation where I needed to debug it. “Easy” I thought. “I’ll just hit F5 like I always used to in Visual Studio and it’ll launch the debugger”. Well, I was right about that part. It will launch the debugger. Or, at least in my case, it’ll try to launch the debugger.

Here’s what I got instead:

Oh great, here we go! Don’t worry, I figured out what the problem was, so we’ll get into what we can do about this. Let’s start with the one that fixed it for me.

❌ Problem: pythonPath in your launch.json really is invalid

So, as it turns out, my assumption that VS Code doesn’t have magical hidden files that affect the behavior of your project was false. Who woulda thought? I mean, it is promoted as a hip, agile, slimmed down IDE for the cool kids. But, then again, it is also Microsoft Visual Studio. And they love their opaque and fragile project settings files.

So, I did a quick look around the project directory (including hidden files), and I found this:

$ tree -a
.
├── main.py
└── .vscode
    └── launch.json

1 directory, 2 files

What the heck is launch.json? Well, after a lot of searching around the web, I found on Microsoft’s help pages that it’s the project settings. Inside a hidden folder, of course. Because why wouldn’t it be?

Anyway, I looked inside and found this as the contents:

{
    // 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: Current File",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "justMyCode": true,
            "pythonPath": "C:\Python3.8\bin\python.exe"
        }
    ]
}

Hmm… I think I know the problem. Can you guess?

That’s right, the pythonPath isn’t right. I’m on Ubuntu 20.04 as my usual development machine, and that, my friends, is a Windows path. Of course. The guy I took over for was using Windows to work on this, so he committed everything, including his Windows-specific VS Code settings with it. I mean, that’s not even the default install path for Python on Windows, that’s some package he probably downloaded and unzipped to the root of the C: drive.

Anyway, enough complaining, let’s fix it.

✅ Fix 1: put the correct path in launch.json

So, as you might have already guessed, we need to put the correct path to Python in here in order for this to work. In order to do that, we need to first figure out where our Python is installed. This will differ depending on your OS (Windows vs Mac vs Linux), so pick whichever you are on below and try it.

Find python binary on Mac, Linux, or WSL

Fire up a terminal and type in the following command:

This should result in the correct path to where your python command points to. If you don’t get any result, your Python interpreter is probably called python3 (or python2 if you’re still using Python 2) so try searching for that instead. Here’s mine:

$ which python3
/usr/bin/python3

Find python binary on Windows

This is a bit trickier, but not that bad. You could open up “My Computer” and aimlessly click around Program Files until you find it, but there’s a better way. Ok, maybe not better, but it’s guaranteed to work.

Open up a Python interpreter and try the following:

>>> import sys
>>> sys.executable
'C:\Program Files\Python\bin\python.exe'

Oh, look, there it is! What we did here was we used Python’s os package to get the path to the executable. Pretty neat.

Update your launch.json

Ok, now that we have our correct Python path (you did copy it, right?) we need to put that in our launch.json file for the property pythonPath. So open it up in VS Code and scroll down to the pythonPath property.

Here’s mine after fixing it:

{
    // 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: Current File",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "justMyCode": true,
            "pythonPath": "/usr/bin/python3"
        }
    ]
}

And that’s what fixed it for me. However, I later learned that it’s not even necessary to specify it in there. What’s in the pythonPath in launch.json is more of an override, not a necessary setting that has to be there.

✅ Fix 2 (recommended): remove the pythonPath attribute from launch.json entirely

Another fix, like I said previously, is to just remove that property altogether. It’s not necessary, and it’s just an override for whichever Python interpreter path VS Code thinks it should use in the first place.

Here’s what it could look like if you just remove it:

{
    // 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: Current File",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "justMyCode": true            
        }
    ]
}

I tried just removing it myself and it still worked. So, this would be my recommended solution.

❌ Problem: you selected an invalid Python environment

So if you’re not in my exact situation and you didn’t inherit someone else’s code that happened to be working on a different platform, good for you. That’s a great place to be. But, it also means you screwed something up in your own project. I know, I know. That’s impossible. But… hear me out. You did.

What you might have done is accidentally picked the wrong Python environment from the command palette. What is a “command palette” you ask? Well, fear not, I’ll tell you. I just learned about it 3 hours ago myself, so I’m kind of an expert.

In VS Code, the “command palette” is the thing that is brought up when you type Ctrl+Shift+P:

As you can see, in my recently used commands, I have Python: Select Interpreter. That’s because I was screwing around with this for way too long earlier trying to fix the problem. You probably won’t have anything under recently used, unless it’s how you messed things up in the first place. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone 😉

✅ Fix 1: open the command palette and select the correct environment

To fix this, we have to open up the command palette (see screenshot above) and type in “python select interpreter” like this:

Then, click on the “Python: Select Interpreter” option. You’ll see something like this:

Go ahead and choose the starred one that is “recommended”. If that doesn’t work, pick the next one down. And if that doesn’t work… well, you get the picture.

What if none of them work? Well…

❌ Problem: your VS Code install is corrupted

Sometimes, VS Code is just broken. Like any other fancy schmancy IDE, it has a lot of moving parts, lots of config files, and no-doubt some of those config files are in some obscure, proprietary, binary format that you’ll never be able to decipher or figure out why they’re not pointing to the right interpreter.

If trying to figure that out is your cup of tea, go for it. There’s probably a future in computer forensics for you. For the rest of us…

✅ Fix: reinstall VS Code

Time for the nuclear option! This is not usually my go-to solution (okay, maybe it kind of is), but it works 9 times out of 10 when some IDE is behaving badly and nothing seems to fix it. I could sit here and try to tell you that I know why VS Code in particular needs re-installing sometimes, but I’d be lying. It’s also not really something I particularly care about, especially when I have deadlines to meet and the thing just isn’t working.

So, go ahead. Uninstall it and re-install it. It’s what the IT guy will do anyway.

Conclusion

In this article we discussed the various causes of “The Python path in your debug configuration is invalid” and what to do about it. Well, there’s only one real cause: your launch.json is pointing to the wrong pythonPath. But it could also be some internal setting for VS Code. In which case, your best bet is to just reinstall it. If the problem is in your launch.json, you can either remove the pythonPath property altogether (recommended) or put the correct path in there. After you figure out what the correct path is, of course.

That’s all for now, happy coding!