VSC will not recognize tests

[elutins]

Type: Bug

Behaviour

Expected vs. Actual

Expected: VSC to correctly discover and load all test files in the Testing panel.

Actual: VSC fails to recognize any test files. VSC will attempt to find test (after re-running Tests: Refresh Tests in command pallette), but does not succeed.

Steps to reproduce:

Here is a layout of my current directory containing test files
tree

├─projects
├    |── __init__.py
├    |── subfolder1
├        ├─ __init__.py
├        ├─ subfolder2
├           |── __init__.py
├           |── test_file.py

And here is a python snippet from my settings.json

"python.testing.pytestArgs": [
        "."
    ],
    "python.testing.unittestEnabled": false,
    "python.testing.pytestEnabled": true,

I tried downgrading the Python vscode extension to version 2022.8 per this issue, but still no luck.

Diagnostic data

• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): 3.13.2
• Type of virtual environment used (e.g. conda, venv, virtualenv, etc.): Micromamba (also tested in a conda environment)
• Value of the python.languageServer setting: Pylance

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

NA - no output is shown in Output Panel

User Settings

languageServer: "Pylance"

formatting
• provider: "black"
• blackArgs: "<placeholder>"

testing
• pytestArgs: "<placeholder>"
• pytestEnabled: true

Extension version: 2022.8.0
VS Code version: Code 1.97.0 (Universal) (33fc5a94a3f99ebe7087e8fe79fbe1d37a251016, 2025-02-04T22:41:26.688Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 24.3.0
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M1 Pro (10 x 2400)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	4, 5, 5
Memory (System)	32.00GB (2.67GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 40779e06-2e24-4d81-b5c4-dafb19b092f8
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

[karthiknadig]

@elutins when you run pytest from the terminal is it able to find the tests?

[elutins]

@elutins when you run pytest from the terminal is it able to find the tests?

Yep - pytest test_file.py works as expected

[karthiknadig]

@elutins From the configuration you shared "python.testing.pytestArgs": ["."] we run pytest . . Does it work if you run pytest . from the root directory?

[elutins]

pytest . does not work from the root directory, but pytest . from the subfolder2 directory runs as expected. I updated the python.testing.cwd parameter in my settings to read as such:

"python.testing.cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/projects/subfolder1/subfolder2"

Additionally, I am developing/running these tests inside a container that is vscode is connected to. So the above settings file refers to a environments/dev/.vscode/settings.json file, where environments is at the same level as projects . Here are the updated relevant test settings from my settings.json file

"python.testing.pytestArgs": [
        "."
    ],
    "python.testing.unittestEnabled": false,
    "python.testing.pytestEnabled": true,
    "python.testing.cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/projects/subfolder1/subfolder2"

[eleanorjboyd]

did adding the cwd help? Was any output produced after that change?

[elutins]

adding the cwd produced the same result - tests were still not discovered