Incorrect debugpy command selected in terminal

[tulis-deshaw]

Before creating a new issue, please check the FAQ to see if your question is answered there.

Notes

We have debugpy python package installed locally and running debugpy in the VSCode terminal selects the local installation instead of the bundled extension wrapper in .vscode-server/extensions/ms-python.debugpy-2025.18.0/bundled/scripts/noConfigScripts/debugpy. This broke since debugpy 1.8.5, which added the debugpy script to the python package. This happens because the extension wrapper path is added to the end of PATH rather than beginning. Can the extension be modified to prepend the bundled path to the front of PATH instead?

Environment data

• debugpy version: 1.8.16 (run import debugpy; print(debugpy.__version__) if uncertain)
• OS and version: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10 (Ootpa)
• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): 3.11.13
• Using VS Code or Visual Studio: Yes

Actual behavior

In VSCode terminal when we run debugpy <python-filename>. Instead of attaching a debugger, it gives us the help menu.

Expected behavior

Running debugpy <filename> should select the debugy version bundled with the ms-python.debugpy extension and attach the debugger.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install Debugpy version 1.8.16 on the system using pip.
2. Open the project in VSCode
3. Download the Python Debugger Extension (@id:ms-python.debugpy) V2025.18.0
4. Try debugging a python file by running debugpy <filename> in VSCode Terminal.

[rchiodo]

Thanks for the issue. I'm not sure everybody would want it to work this way. If you have debugpy installed in your environment, I'd say that's likely the one you want to use.

[rchiodo]

Maybe the extension should have its own debugpy-extension command or something like that.

[propertone]

I don't think users would intentionally prefer the debugpy binary over the wrapper provided by the extension. This wasn't an issue until debugpy 1.8.5, which simply added the debugpy entry point so that it's easier for users to type "debugpy" instead of "python -m debugpy". Unfortunately the current behavior completely breaks the debugpy extension script. If the extension debugpy was first in $PATH, at least users could still type python -m debugpy to launch the python package script, but there is no simple workaround to launch the extension script. Maybe the $PATH modification can be controlled by a config option so that users can opt-out if they want to?

[alanwilter]

My use case: if you need to install something like jupyterlab, it will also install the debugpy package as a required dependency, which breaks my debugpy -m my_package ... workflow.
The simplest solution would be to rename the VS Code–bundled debugpy to something like vsdebugpy.
This would solve so many problems and would make — If not everyone — certainly me very happy.