Feature Request: Easily Add Folder to PYTHONPATH from VS Code UI

Hi, I’m not sure if this belongs here or in vscode-python, but I’d like to request a more user-friendly way to add folders to the Python path in VS Code.

Current Situation

The python.analysis.extraPaths setting only affects IntelliSense, not the runtime PYTHONPATH.
Using a .env file with PYTHONPATH=path1;path2;path3 is unreliable (in my experience) and not user-friendly.
Creating a .pth file in .venv/Lib/site-packages/ as below works, but is also tedious and not user-friendly.

path1/src/
path2/src/
...

Feature Proposal

It would be very helpful to have:

A context menu command when right-clicking a folder (e.g., “Add to Python Path”)
An accessible command in the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
A button in the python-environments extension UI (it would be very intuitive to have a small icon/button next to each venv in the list. Clicking this button could prompt the user to select a folder, and then automatically add that folder to the venv using the .pth method.)

This should add the folder to the Python path of the currently selected virtual environment in VS Code.

This would make managing the Python path much easier, especially for users coming from PyCharm, where this is a standard feature.

Thanks!

Thanks for the feature request! We are going to give the community 60 days from when this issue was created to provide 7 👍 upvotes on the opening comment to gauge general interest in this idea. If there's enough upvotes then we will consider this feature request in our future planning. If there's unfortunately not enough upvotes then we will close this issue.

If you do this can you please make sure that the PYTHONPATH is always set in all these cases:

a terminal is opened
a vscode task is run
a python script is debugged
a pyhton script is run
a test is run
a test is debugged

If you do this can you please make sure that the PYTHONPATH is always set in all these cases:

a terminal is opened

a vscode task is run

a python script is debugged

a pyhton script is run

a test is run

a test is debugged

.pth method I described and used in my PR is a Python built-in mechanism and should work in all those cases since they're processed during Python interpreter startup.

Thanks everyone for voting here- it past the threshold. I will review the PR and look at the implementation

Thanks everyone for voting here- it past the threshold. I will review the PR and look at the implementation

Hi, any news ? Thanks

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Feature Request: Easily Add Folder to PYTHONPATH from VS Code UI #735

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Feature Request: Easily Add Folder to PYTHONPATH from VS Code UI #735

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Current Situation

Feature Proposal

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github-actions commented on Aug 21, 2025

albertino87 commented on Aug 29, 2025

kipavy commented on Aug 29, 2025

eleanorjboyd commented on Sep 8, 2025

kipavy commented on Oct 20, 2025

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