Setting BIOME_CONFIG_PATH breaks VSCode extension

[david-04]

Environment information

CLI:
  Version:                      1.6.1
  Color support:                true

Platform:
  CPU Architecture:             x86_64
  OS:                           windows

Environment:
  BIOME_LOG_DIR:                unset
  NO_COLOR:                     unset
  TERM:                         "cygwin"
  JS_RUNTIME_VERSION:           unset
  JS_RUNTIME_NAME:              unset
  NODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER:         unset

Biome Configuration:
  Status:                       unset

Workspace:
  Open Documents:               0

What happened?

1. Set environment variable BIOME_CONFIG_PATH to a custom default configuration file (e.g. C:\MyFiles\biome.default.json).
2. Start VSCode (with the Biome VSCode extension installed and Biome configured as the default formatter for TypeScript).
3. Open a TypeScript project (with or without a local biome.json) and try to format a TypeScript file.
4. Formatting fails and an error message pops up, stating that Extension 'Biome' is configured as formatter but it cannot format 'TypeScript'-files

Expected result

Biome should format the code. If the project has a biome.json, it should use the configuration from there. If the project does not have a Biome configuration, it should use the file specified in the BIOME_CONFIG_PATH.

The environment variable was a good way to define a default configuration that's applied when a VSCode project does not have a local Biome configuration. It has stopped working some time ago. Setting BIOME_CONFIG_PATH now prevents the VSCode extension from working at all (even if the project has a local biome.json).

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow Biome's Code of Conduct

[benhammondmusic]

This or something similar is happening on my Mac setup as well

[nhedger]

Hi,

Thanks for opening this issue.

The BIOME_CONFIG_PATH environment variable expects a path to a directory, not a file.

It could be why Biome fails to start, resulting in the VS Code extension behaving like this.

[david-04]

Thanks for the clarification, Nicolas. It does work as expected when BIOME_CONFIG_PATH points to the directory rather than the file. I'm closing this issue.