Visual Studio Code Extension - How to Set Up?

[Siniara]

This is probably very basic, but I find no guidance in the docs, I suspect because it's supposed to be obvious... ;/ As far as I see the docs cover using Ruff as a package, but if I understood correctly, I shouldn't need to install the package additionally if I'm using the VS extension right?

I've installed the VS code extension, and I think it's functioning - I see ruff suggestions for underlined code. BUT none of the automated functionalities - code formatting or import sorting are happening. Ruff is enabled in VS code settings, organise imports as well. Is there something else I need to enable? I'm used to black where it would just format everything on save, or when running cells if in a notebook, which is not what I'm getting at the moment.

[ntBre]

I think this could be better documented, at least on the ruff website itself. After clicking through a few links, I got to the ruff-vscode README, which might have what you're looking for. The Settings section in particular has this snippet for formatOnSave behavior:

{
  "[python]": {
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "charliermarsh.ruff"
  }
}

I hope this helps!

[dhruvmanila]

Thanks Brent! Yeah, the README contains snippets of settings that you can use to configure the VS Code extension. I agree that it would be useful to move this to the documentation itself and provide a link from the README. I think the reason it exists as a README is so that it's visible directly inside the VS Code Marketplace page of Ruff.

[ntBre]

That totally makes sense, I might have phrased my suggestion badly. At most I'd say we should duplicate it on the website, though then they could fall out of sync. I think it's great to have in the README to see in the marketplace!

[Siniara]

Thanks for the reply! I indeed first checked the website, since I assumed the info would be the same.

I was still struggling to be honest, but I figured it out! I'm one of those people who need very explicit instruction. :)

To achieve this through the VS code settings UI one needs to enable "Editor: format on save" and "Notebook: format on cell execution". I was naively looking for these options under ruff settings. It might be beginner friendly to just add a line about this in the docs.

Then the docs you linked say:

Once installed in Visual Studio Code, ruff will automatically execute when you open or edit a Python or Jupyter Notebook file.

To me that implies that the formatting would happen automatically upon install, which added to the confusion a bit.

Lastly, the problem for me with the json snippets was that I didn't know exactly how to use them, I can't just copy them "as is" in the json settings file, that doesn't work. Again, I understand that this might be basic, but well that's where I'm at. :)

But we got there in the end! Thanks again :)

[dhruvmanila]

Thank you for the feedback. I'll take this into account when changing the docs.