Vscode 1.104 Testing Panel does not see the $PATH anymore

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

VS Code Version: 1.104
OS Version: macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 (24G90)

I have a python project whose pytest works fine in Vscode Testing panel. My integration test depends on a binary (typst, installed via homebrew).

With the new Vscode 1.104 this is broken, it does not see the $PATH and does not find typst.

Few questions:

are you running test or debugging tests?
do you have the python environments extension installed?
how are you added it to the $PATH var?

I'm using Run Test. But Debug Test and Run Test with Coverage fail the same way.

I have Python Environments extension. With or without it, the issue is there.

I work on a Mac and I use homebrew. I don't do anything special for the $PATH, never needed. If I run pytest in my vscode terminal, the integration tests passed fine, no wonder, since which typst is in the $PATH.

But something happened in Vscode v1.104 and when I run the Testing via GUI it fails.

FYI, I circumvented this development issue by embedding the binary in my python package. But the issue is there, and with v1.103 it was not.

Hi! Sorry on the delay here- are you still facing this issue?

The answer is yes and no.

You can use Vscode debug mode to peek r1.stdout:

def test_system() -> None:
    r1 = run(["sh", "-c", "echo $PATH"], capture_output=True, text=True)
    assert r1.returncode == 0

And then you'll see that, for Mac users with homebrew, /opt/homebrew/bin/ is not there. But the python env is, e.g. .pyenv/versions/3.12.11/envs/mbpdfgen/bin.

Perhaps it's just a matter of configuration, but I frankly don't know where to add e.g. /opt/homebrew/bin/.

Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)

Looping in Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1) - Potential Interaction with Activation Hooks Change

Issue: Tests run via the Testing Panel on macOS are missing /opt/homebrew/bin and other system paths from their PATH environment variable (only showing /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin - 29 chars vs expected ~500+ chars). Tests work fine when run in the integrated terminal.

idea of cause?

The Extension Host process starts with a truncated PATH (just /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin). Previously (1.103), activation happened via shell profile modification which may have ensured the full PATH was available. Now with shell integration scripts (1.104), there may be a timing issue where:

Tests start running via runInBackground (Python Envs extension path)
Extension Host hasn't completed shell integration yet
Tests get the truncated Extension Host PATH instead of the full shell PATH

Diagnostic logging shows:

Extension Host process.env.PATH: 29 chars (truncated)
User's actual shell PATH: ~500+ chars (includes /opt/homebrew/bin)
The PATH is already truncated when we first access it in our activation code

I could (on the testing side) explicitly query the user's login shell to get the full PATH in activation/service.ts. But this doesn't feel like the best option. What are your thoughts Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)? What is the expected experience here?

Because we have not heard back with the information we requested, we are closing this issue for now. If you are able to provide the info later on, then we will be happy to re-open this issue to pick up where we left off.

Happy Coding!

I dont think we spawn terminal when running tests via testing panel, but rather we seem to spawnProcess like: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python-environments/blob/d0edb908470e408dcab9c7641aa9eb206462e4b6/src/features/execution/runInBackground.ts#L42-L45

Which means it never have had access to shell integration nor the profile stuff.
Maybe this just used to somehow work in python extension then user got rolled into env ext experiment.

I don't remember us touching PATH ever since the old python terminal env var experiment stuff. I dont even know if this even matters since the issue only seem to happen when not in terminal.

For env extension we could try spawning like a dummy shell before spawnProcess and make it inherit the missing path?

Because we have not heard back with the information we requested, we are closing this issue for now. If you are able to provide the info later on, then we will be happy to re-open this issue to pick up where we left off.

Happy Coding!

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Vscode 1.104 Testing Panel does not see the $PATH anymore #25682

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Vscode 1.104 Testing Panel does not see the $PATH anymore #25682

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eleanorjboyd commented on Sep 12, 2025

alanwilter commented on Sep 15, 2025

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