Using Python environments in VS Code outside of python files.

[FloLey]

Hello,
The Python vscode extension allows us to select venv as well as python interpreters.
I seems like the Python extension is only started when opening a .py file. So before that, it is not possible to use it to switch env.
I would like to create a vscode extension allowing me to do the same for other types of files. (so without the need of opening a .py file)
Is this possible? How should it be done?

Thx a lot,

[brettcannon]

We actually trigger on a bit more than just opening a Python file (see our activation events for the exact list).

As for triggering for other file types, there's two solutions. One is if the file type makes sense we can add it to the extension. The other is I think you can trigger the extension to load from another extension (@karthiknadig can correct me if I'm wrong).

[FloLey]

Hi @brettcannon,
I would be really interested by the second solution (trigger the extension to load form my extension) as that would fit my needs.
It did however not find any doc that explains how to do it. Could you (or @karthiknadig ) explain we how to do it or give me a link to
a doc that explains it?
Thanks a lot!

[FloLey]

Also I would like to be able to retrieve the current active venv from within my extension. Is it possible to hook myself to the python extension to do so?

[brettcannon]

https://code.visualstudio.com/api/references/vscode-api#extensions documents the getExtension() function which returns an object that you can activate() on to activate an extension.

As for finding out the active environment, we are working on a public API. We are implementing for our own use in #17905, then we will get feedback from other extensions, and then we will release it publicly. Keep an eye on our blog posts for when we announce it.