Providing feedback on the VS Code Python experience

My current role as a Python cloud advocate at Microsoft is to make sure Python developers have a great experience using Microsoft products, including my current favorite IDE, VS Code. As much as I love VS Code, it still has bugs (all software does!), so I often find myself filing issues. It can be a little tricky to figure out where to file issues, as there are multiple GitHub repos involved, so I'm writing this post to help others figure out what to post where.

github.com/microsoft/vscode

The primary VS Code repo. This is typically not the place for Python-specific issues, but if your feedback doesn't fit anywhere else, this might be where it goes, and the triagers can direct you elsewhere if needed.

github.com/orgs/community/discussions/categories/codespaces

Discussion forum for issues that seem specific to GitHub Codespaces (e.g. forwarded ports not opening).

github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release

Similarly, this is the repo for the VS Code Dev Containers extension, appropriate for issues that only happen when opening a project in a Dev Container locally.

github.com/devcontainers/images

The repo that generates the mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers Docker images. If you're using a Dev Container with a Python image from that registry and think the issue stems from the image, report it here. Consult the README first, however.

github.com/microsoft/vscode-python

The repo for the Python extension that's responsible for much of the Python-specific experience. The extension does build upon various open-source projects, however. See below.

github.com/microsoft/pylance-release

The repo for the library that provides the linting/error reports in VS Code. When you get squiggles in your Python code in VS Code and hover over them, you should see in the popup whether the error comes from Pylance or a different extension. If you haven't installed any other extensions besides the Python one, then it's almost certainly from Pylance.

github.com/microsoft/debugpy

The repo for the library that provides part of the Python debugger experience in VS Code. For example, if it's not showing local variables correctly in the debug sidebar, that's an issue for debugpy.

github.com/microsoft/vscode-jupyter

The repo for the Jupyter extension that makes ipynb notebooks work well in VS Code. This extension used to be downloaded along with the Python extension but must now be installed separately. If it's a notebook-specific issue, it probably goes here.

Whenever you're filing an issue, be sure to provide as much information as possible. Thanks for helping us make the Python experience better!