C. How are settings managed

Visual Studio looks at settings in two places:

  • the user settings.json file

  • the project .vscode/settings.json file

User JSON settings

Visual Studio has a main configuration file, that can be accessed using a command.

In settings.json, accessible using CTRL+SHIFT+P Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)

Note: on Mac, the CTRL+SHIFT+P shortcut for to “Show Command Palette” is

CMD+SHIFT+P or F1 (all platforms).

Settings can also be edited from the File > Preferences > Settings menu (Windows/Linux) or from Code > Preferences > Settings (Mac).

Per-project settings

To work with a Python project, one opens the root folder of that project in VS Code. The root folder usually contains the .git subfolder as well.

Add a settings.json file in a .vscode subfolder of the root folder; this is where you’ll put per-project settings, such as Python environment options and style parameters.