Is there any way to set environment variables in Visual Studio Code?

Could you please help me, how to setup environment variables in visual studio code?

Assuming you mean for a debugging session(?) then you can include a env property in your launch configuration.

If you open the .vscode/launch.json file in your workspace or select Debug > Open Configurations then you should see a set of launch configurations for debugging your code. You can then add to it an env property with a dictionary of string:string.

Here is an example for an ASP.NET Core app from their standard web template setting the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT to Development :

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": ".NET Core Launch (web)",
      "type": "coreclr",
      "request": "launch",
      "preLaunchTask": "build",
      // If you have changed target frameworks, make sure to update the program path.
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Debug/netcoreapp2.0/vscode-env.dll",
      "args": [],
      "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "stopAtEntry": false,
      "internalConsoleOptions": "openOnSessionStart",
      "launchBrowser": {
        "enabled": true,
        "args": "${auto-detect-url}",
        "windows": {
          "command": "cmd.exe",
          "args": "/C start ${auto-detect-url}"
        },
        "osx": {
          "command": "open"
        },
        "linux": {
          "command": "xdg-open"
        }
      },
      "env": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
      },
      "sourceFileMap": {
        "/Views": "${workspaceFolder}/Views"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": ".NET Core Attach",
      "type": "coreclr",
      "request": "attach",
      "processId": "${command:pickProcess}"
    }
  ]
}

In the VSCode launch.json you can use "env" and configure all your environment variables there:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {           
            "env": {
                "NODE_ENV": "development",
                "port":"1337"
            },
            ...
        }
    ]
}

You can load an environment file by setting the envFile property like this:

{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Launch",
"type": "go",
"request": "launch",
"mode": "debug",
"remotePath": "",
"port": 2345,
"host": "127.0.0.1",
"program": "${workspaceFolder}",
"envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env",
"args": [],
"showLog": true
}
]
}

Place the .env file in your folder and add vars like this:

KEY1="TEXT_VAL1"
KEY2='{"key1":val1","key2":"val2"}'

Further Reading: Debugging go in vscode with environment variables

I run vscode from my command line by navigating to the folder with the code and running

code .

If you do that all your bash/zsh variables are passed into vs code. You can update your .bashrc/.zshrc file or just do

export KEY=value

before opening it.

Could they make it any harder? Here's what I did: open system properties, click on advanced, add the environment variable, shut down visual studio and start it up again.

My response is fairly late. I faced the same problem. I am on Windows 10. This is what I did:

• Open a new Command prompt (CMD.EXE)
• Set the environment variables . set myvar1=myvalue1
• Launch VS Code from that Command prompt by typing code and then press ENTER
• VS code was launched and it inherited all the custom variables that I had set in the parent CMD window

Optionally, you can also use the Control Panel -> System properties window to set the variables on a more permanent basis

Hope this helps.

For C/C++ debugging this works for me (docs):

// Defined per configuration in launch.json
"environment": [
    {
        "name": "<env_name>",
        "value": "<env_value>"
    }
]

If you've already assigned the variables using the npm module dotenv, then they should show up in your global variables. That module is here.

While running the debugger, go to your variables tab (right click to reopen if not visible) and then open "global" and then "process." There should then be an env section...

As it does not answer your question but searching vm arguments I stumbled on this page and there seem to be no other. So if you want to pass vm arguments its like so

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "java",
      "name": "ddtBatch",
      "request": "launch",
      "mainClass": "com.something.MyApplication",
      "projectName": "MyProject",
      "args": "Hello",
      "vmArgs": "-Dspring.config.location=./application.properties"
    }
  ]
}

Since VS Code uses powershell in the terminal. The powershell command is

$env:NAME='VALUE'

To learn more: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/how-to-set-environment-variables-using-powershell