biomejs
🐛 VS Code extension: Poor support for multi-folder workspaces
Environment information
CLI:
Version: 1.5.2
Color support: true
Platform:
CPU Architecture: x86_64
OS: linux
Environment:
BIOME_LOG_DIR: unset
NO_COLOR: unset
TERM: "xterm-256color"
JS_RUNTIME_VERSION: "v21.1.0"
JS_RUNTIME_NAME: "node"
NODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER: "pnpm/8.10.2"
Biome Configuration:
Status: Loaded successfully
Formatter disabled: false
Linter disabled: false
Organize imports disabled: false
VCS disabled: true
Workspace:
Open Documents: 0
What happened?
I have several "Folders" in my VS Code "Workspace". Like this:
Some of those "Folders" are projects that use Biome, and some aren't. Biome's VS Code extension doesn't handle this very gracefully. There are several issues:
Bug 1: First "Folder" in the VS Code "Workspace" must be a Biome project for any others to work
If you order the "Folders" in your "Workspace" such that the top-most one doesn't have Biome installed, none of the files you open in the older "Folders" will run through Biome checks. It seems like the top-most "Folder" must be a Biome project for the Biome VS Code extension to do anything and will instead show this warning:
Bug 2: Biome runs on "Folders" that aren't Biome projects
The inverse of Bug 1 also exists, where if the top-most "Folder" is a Biome project, all other "Folders" will get checked by Biome, even if they don't have Biome installed or configured.
Bug 3: Duplicated problems
For every folder with Biome installed, the "Problems" tab shows duplicate Biome errors:
Note how each of those problems is the same problem on the same line & column. It's a duplicate.
Expected result
Expectations listed above in each bug
Code of Conduct
- [X] I agree to follow Biome's Code of Conduct
Our LSP doesn't support workspaces yet. We have a task to implement and support them: https://github.com/biomejs/biome/issues/1573
Environment information
CLI: Version: 1.5.2 Color support: true Platform: CPU Architecture: x86_64 OS: linux Environment: BIOME_LOG_DIR: unset NO_COLOR: unset TERM: "xterm-256color" JS_RUNTIME_VERSION: "v21.1.0" JS_RUNTIME_NAME: "node" NODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER: "pnpm/8.10.2" Biome Configuration: Status: Loaded successfully Formatter disabled: false Linter disabled: false Organize imports disabled: false VCS disabled: true Workspace: Open Documents: 0What happened?
I have several "Folders" in my VS Code "Workspace". Like this:
Some of those "Folders" are projects that use Biome, and some aren't. Biome's VS Code extension doesn't handle this very gracefully. There are several issues:
Bug 1: First "Folder" in the VS Code "Workspace" must be a Biome project for any others to work
If you order the "Folders" in your "Workspace" such that the top-most one doesn't have Biome installed, none of the files you open in the older "Folders" will run through Biome checks. It seems like the top-most "Folder" must be a Biome project for the Biome VS Code extension to do anything and will instead show this warning:
Bug 2: Biome runs on "Folders" that aren't Biome projects
The inverse of Bug 1 also exists, where if the top-most "Folder" is a Biome project, all other "Folders" will get checked by Biome, even if they don't have Biome installed or configured.
Bug 3: Duplicated problems
For every folder with Biome installed, the "Problems" tab shows duplicate Biome errors:
Note how each of those problems is the same problem on the same line & column. It's a duplicate.
Expected result
Expectations listed above in each bug
Code of Conduct
- [x] I agree to follow Biome's Code of Conduct
Thank you for opening the issue, I had the same problem.
Hi, for the time being, could you describe this limitation in https://biomejs.dev/reference/vscode/ (under "Troubleshooting")?
I wasted an hour trying to get my biome.json working in a multi-root workspace where only one root uses Biome (other roots still depend on Prettier). I managed to enable formatting with Biome on save, but biome.json seems to be ignored by the extension (it works just fine when I manually type npx biome format).
Am I right that it's simply impossible to do this for now, and all I can do is set up isolated VSCode workspaces for each my Biome-enabled folder?
Hi, for the time being, could you describe this limitation in biomejs.dev/reference/vscode (under "Troubleshooting")?
I wasted an hour trying to get my
biome.jsonworking in a multi-root workspace where only one root uses Biome (other roots still depend on Prettier). I managed to enable formatting with Biome on save, butbiome.jsonseems to be ignored by the extension (it works just fine when I manually typenpx biome format).Am I right that it's simply impossible to do this for now, and all I can do is set up isolated VSCode workspaces for each my Biome-enabled folder?
Apologies, @smikitky, for the time you wasted. Would you like to send a PR yourself?
Hi @ematipico,
Is the documentation added in #2297 still accurate after adding LSP support (#1573)? Would it be more correct to state that the reason it is not working as expected is rather https://github.com/biomejs/biome-vscode/issues/201?
I am not really sure, to be honest. When I developed the feature, used the Workspace project feature inside VSCode and it worked really well. Is there a different way to set up workspaces in VSCode that I am not aware about? If so, then it makes sense to call it out.
@ematipico as of today with biome v1.8.3 and biome-vscode v2.3.0:
- If you set up a workspace with a single application folder where biome.json is at the root, everything works as expected.
- If e.g. we imagine a project with two folders,
frontendandbackendand the path tobiome.jsonisfrontend/biome.json, then the extension will not read the frontend configuration, and will, instead, use the default configuration.
Not sure what you mean by "worked really well", but yes, it works, just not with the configuration I'm expecting.
Well, the second scenario isn't a LSP workspace, am I right?
Nested configuration files aren't supported as you would expect. And it's a problem unrelated to the LSP workspaces.
We might be able to solve these kinds of scenarios here:
- https://github.com/biomejs/biome/issues/2228
- https://github.com/biomejs/biome/issues/3307
Next version (v3) of the VS Code extension will have support for multi-root workspaces. Independent LSP sessions will be created for every workspace folder, and the configuration file at the root of each workspace folder will be taken into account, respectively.
Question: is it possible / would it be possible to configure folders for biome independently from the workspace's folders: setting?
In our monorepo we don't want to list folders separately in the toplevel setting (because it clutters UI in a few places, and finding files by copypasting the full repo-relative path doesn't work, etc).
But, with just one toplevel entry in folders, the biome extension doesn't work:
// no highlights from biome extension
"folders": [{ "path": ".", "name": "our-project" }],
// now biome does highlight the errors, but we don't really want to set it for all 20+ workspaces
"folders": [
{ "path": "packages/foobar" },
// ... n more entries
{ "path": ".", "name": "our-project" },
],
With eslint & jest plugins it is possible to configure folders separately, e.g.
"settings": {
"jestrunner.changeDirectoryToWorkspaceRoot": false,
"jest.virtualFolders": [
{
"rootPath": "packages/foobar",
"name": "foobar tests",
},
// ...
],
// eslint plugin is even better as it allows to use patterns too
"eslint.workingDirectories": [
{ "pattern": "frontend/*", "changeProcessCWD": true },
{ "pattern": "packages/*", "changeProcessCWD": true },
],
// edit: unless the answer above means that in the next vesion such a scenario would be supported out of the box?
The next version supports multi root workspaces as well as monorepos within a single root workspace. It's currently available in the pre-release channel of the extension. Feel free to try it and don't hesitate to give feedback.
Feel free to try it and don't hesitate to give feedback.
I can't get the prerelease version to work at all. All I get is this dialog:
That dialog also appears many times when I click "No". Maybe it's showing up once for every folder in my workspace? I don't want to install Biome globally, so I always press "No" there.
In the workspace folder that does have Biome installed, it doesn't work.
My VS Code workspace looks like this:
That dialog also appears many times when I click "No". Maybe it's showing up once for every folder in my workspace? I don't want to install Biome globally, so I always press "No" there.
Ah, good catch ! I'll see what we can do about that !
In the workspace folder that does have Biome installed, it doesn't work.
My VS Code workspace looks like this:
You can disable biome by default by setting biome.enabled to false (it's true by default). You can do this either in your user settings, or in the settings field of your .code-workspace file if you have one.
Then to enable the extension only for the reservesense workspace folder, override the biome.enabled to true in your .vscode/settings.json file.
If the extension still fails to detect Biome, please open the output panel and select Biome so we can see the logs. Hopefully this will help us identify the issue.
I tried following those steps, but Biome still doesn't run and the Output panel simply shows:
2024-08-29 21:54:02.360 [info]
2024-08-29 21:54:02.360 [info] Biome extension activated
2024-08-29 21:54:08.526 [error] Could not find the Biome binary
It would be helpful if it could log out the path where it's trying to search for the binary. I'm not sure why it can't find it.
Could you set the log level to Debug and reload the window?
Command palette: Developer: Set log level...
Then paste the whole output here.
Hmm, not much more info in Debug mode:
2024-08-30 20:38:27.546 [info] Biome extension activated
2024-08-30 20:38:31.371 [error] Could not find the Biome binary
2024-08-30 20:38:31.371 [warning] Could not create global session
2024-08-30 20:38:31.372 [info] Biome extension started
2024-08-30 20:38:31.372 [info] User-facing commands registered
2024-08-30 20:38:31.372 [info] Started listening for lockfile changes
2024-08-30 20:38:31.372 [info] Started listening for configuration changes
2024-08-30 20:38:31.372 [info] Started listening for active text editor changes
The next version supports multi root workspaces as well as monorepos within a single root workspace. It's currently available in the pre-release channel of the extension. Feel free to try it and don't hesitate to give feedback.
I'm also experiencing something similar with a multi folder workspace.
I used the pre release version of the plugin ( v2024.8.301002 ), but it still doesn't seem to respect the biome.json if it is not in the root level.
If I run biome format --write ./ in the non root folder/package where the biome.json is present the config is respected, the moment I try and edit something manually on a .ts file the default formatting settings take over through the plugin and not the ones in biome.json
Now If I move the biome.json to the root of the project both the plugin and the command respect the config, as is expected.
The next version supports multi root workspaces as well as monorepos within a single root workspace. It's currently available in the pre-release channel of the extension. Feel free to try it and don't hesitate to give feedback.
Thanks @nhedger! Is there some special config I need to apply? It seems to work same as I described above your answer:
// workspace settings
"folders": [
{ "path": ".", "name": "ourproject" },
],
// biome output
2024-09-02 13:14:26.232 [info] Biome extension activated
2024-09-02 13:14:26.441 [info] Biome extension stopped
2024-09-02 13:14:34.667 [error] Could not find the Biome binary
2024-09-02 13:14:34.667 [warning] Could not create global session
2024-09-02 13:09:25.817 [info] Copying binary to temporary location.
original=<REPO_ROOT>/node_modules/@biomejs/cli-darwin-arm64/biome
destination=/Users/quezak/Library/Application Support/Code - Insiders/User/globalStorage/biomejs.biome/tmp-bin/biome-1.8.3
2024-09-02 13:14:35.078 [info] Created session for project.
project=/
2024-09-02 13:14:35.078 [info] Biome extension started
2024-09-02 13:14:35.078 [info] User-facing commands registered
2024-09-02 13:14:35.078 [info] Started listening for lockfile changes
2024-09-02 13:14:35.078 [info] Started listening for configuration changes
2024-09-02 13:14:35.078 [info] Started listening for active text editor changes
➡️ ❌ no biome errors in editor
// workspace settings
"folders": [
{ "path": "packages/backend-common", "name": "backend-common" },
{ "path": ".", "name": "ourproject" },
],
// biome output
2024-09-02 13:09:25.782 [error] Could not find the Biome binary
2024-09-02 13:09:25.783 [warning] Could not create global session
2024-09-02 13:30:22.465 [info] Copying binary to temporary location.
original=<REPO_ROOT>/node_modules/@biomejs/cli-darwin-arm64/biome
destination=/Users/quezak/Library/Application Support/Code - Insiders/User/globalStorage/biomejs.biome/tmp-bin/biome-1.8.3
2024-09-02 13:09:26.223 [info] Created session for project.
project=backend-common::/
2024-09-02 13:09:26.238 [info] Created session for project.
project=ourproject::/
2024-09-02 13:09:26.238 [info] Biome extension restarted
➡️ biome errors are visible in editor
Note that the created session log says project=ourproject::/ (name redacted from actual project name), as opposed to project=/ in the first section, despite the folders: settings entry for the root repo directory was not changed 🤔
I've also tried to set various combinations of path & folder options in settings.biome.projects, but with no success (sorry, couldn't find docs how to set them correctly so it was trial and error 😅)
// workspace settings, trying out with just one package to see if it has any effect
"folders": [{ "path": ".", "name": "ourproject" }],
"biome.projects": [
{ "path": "packages/backend-common" },
],
// biome output
2024-09-02 13:30:18.642 [info] Configuration change detected.
2024-09-02 13:30:22.416 [error] Could not find the Biome binary
2024-09-02 13:30:22.417 [warning] Could not create global session
2024-09-02 13:30:22.465 [info] Copying binary to temporary location.
original=<REPO_ROOT>/node_modules/@biomejs/cli-darwin-arm64/biome
destination=/Users/quezak/Library/Application Support/Code - Insiders/User/globalStorage/biomejs.biome/tmp-bin/biome-1.8.3
2024-09-02 13:30:22.899 [info] Created session for project.
project=/packages/backend-common
2024-09-02 13:30:22.899 [info] Biome extension restarted
➡️ ❌ no biome errors in editor
For additional info, here's our repo structure:
packages/*configured as yarn workspaces (plus a few other dirs)- common
biome.jsoncin repo root, extended bypackages/biome.jsonviaextends: ..., which in turn gets extended in some packages bypackage/.../biome.jsonc
Update with working settings in comment directly following this one https://github.com/biomejs/biome/issues/1630#issuecomment-2738553634
I'm wondering what folks should expect with multi-folder workspaces going forward. Based on some recent issue comments:
- https://github.com/biomejs/biome-vscode/issues/513#issuecomment-2692754037
- https://github.com/biomejs/biome/issues/5089#issuecomment-2690968039
It sounds like things are moving away from being able to specify a config file per sub-folder inside a workspace (unless I am misreading these comments).
This would be a significant change for us, since our setup uses separate unique biome config files per subfolder (something like this example):
Tree:
biomeExample
├── biomeExample.code-workspace
└── services
├── service1
│ ├── biome_1.jsonc
│ ├── package.json
│ └── yarn.lock
└── service2
├── biome_2.jsonc
├── package.json
└── yarn.lock
workspace settings:
{
"folders": [
{
"name": "root",
"path": ".",
},
{
"name": "service1",
"path": "services/service1"
},
{
"name": "service2",
"path": "services/service2"
},
],
"settings": {
"[javascript][javascriptreact][typescript][typescriptreact]": {
"editor.defaultFormatter": "biomejs.biome",
"javascript.preferences.quoteStyle": "single",
},
"biome.requireConfigFile": true,
"biome.projects": [
{
"folder": "service1",
"path": ".",
"configFile": "./biome_1.jsonc"
},
{
"folder": "service2",
"path": ".",
"configFile": "./biome_2.jsonc"
}
]
},
}
The above currently mostly works with the pre-release Biome vscode extension, with some nuance. It looks like when the biome servers start for each "project", only one config file is discovered and used:
├─ INFO biome_lsp::server Starting Biome Language Server...
├─ WARN biome_lsp::server The Biome Server was initialized with the deprecated `root_path` parameter: this is not supported, use `root_uri` instead
├─ INFO biome_lsp::server Attempting to load the configuration from 'biome.json' file
*****
* Note how `biome_1.jsonc` is loaded:
*****
└─┐biome_fs::fs::os::OsFileSystem::open_with_options{path="/Users/nickhaury/git/biomeExample/services/service1/biome_1.jsonc", options=OpenOptions { read: true, write: false, truncate: false, create: false, create_new: false }}
┌─┘
└─┐biome_fs::fs::os::OsFile::read_to_string{}
┌─┘
└─┐biome_json_parser::parse{}
┌─┘
├─ INFO biome_lsp::session Configuration loaded successfully from disk.
├─ INFO biome_lsp::session Update workspace settings.
├─ DEBUG biome_service::workspace::server Compare the current project with the new one None Some("/Users/nickhaury/git/biomeExample/services/service1") true
*****
* Note how the service path is the expected /services/service1:
*****
└─┐biome_fs::fs::os::OsFileSystem::open_with_options{path="/Users/nickhaury/git/biomeExample/services/service1/package.json", options=OpenOptions { read: true, write: false, truncate: false, create: false, create_new: false }}
...
├─ INFO biome_lsp::server Starting Biome Language Server...
├─ WARN biome_lsp::server The Biome Server was initialized with the deprecated `root_path` parameter: this is not supported, use `root_uri` instead
├─ INFO biome_lsp::server Attempting to load the configuration from 'biome.json' file
*****
* Note how `biome_1.jsonc` is loaded once again instead of `biome_2.jsonc`:
*****
└─┐biome_fs::fs::os::OsFileSystem::open_with_options{path="/Users/nickhaury/git/biomeExample/services/service1/biome_1.jsonc", options=OpenOptions { read: true, write: false, truncate: false, create: false, create_new: false }}
┌─┘
└─┐biome_fs::fs::os::OsFile::read_to_string{}
┌─┘
└─┐biome_json_parser::parse{}
┌─┘
├─ INFO biome_lsp::session Configuration loaded successfully from disk.
├─ INFO biome_lsp::session Update workspace settings.
├─ DEBUG biome_service::workspace::server Compare the current project with the new one None Some("/Users/nickhaury/git/biomeExample/services/service1") true
*****
* Note how the service path is /services/service2:
*****
└─┐biome_fs::fs::os::OsFileSystem::open_with_options{path="/Users/nickhaury/git/biomeExample/services/service2/package.json", options=OpenOptions { read: true, write: false, truncate: false, create: false, create_new: false }}
Based on this, it seems like potentially we would be required to change up our workflow to either rely on a single biome configuration for all sub-services, or we'd need to make separate workspaces for each sub-service.
Just trying to get some sense of how the direction of Biome and the VSCode extension is going so we can plan accordingly if we want to continue to use Biome.
For the time being since we've only implemented using Biome for ~3 services, we are using a workaround where we install different patch versions of Biome in each sub-service (so one has 1.9.4, one has 1.9.3, etc.). This makes one server run per version, and in this case each service is able to use it's own configuration file. Obviously this will not scale as more services are added, so we'll need a longer term solution in place at some point.
Appreciate any insight that can be shared 🙂
Wanted to give an update to the comment I made just above ^ in https://github.com/biomejs/biome/issues/1630#issuecomment-2727093131
Using the following setup:
- Biome
1.9.4installed in each service sub-folder 2025.3.151143VSCode extension pre-release version- MAC M1
14.6.1
the biome extension is now working for our workspace, including handling individual biome.json[c] configuration files appropriately, with the following caveats:
- either
- the
pathsetting must not be used in the workspacebiome.projectssettings (foldersetting appears to not cause issues, but also appears to be unnecessary now) - the
biome.projectsworkspace setting must be removed entirely.
- the
- we must use
"biome.requireConfigFile": true, which is preferred for our workspace anyway - custom names for the
biome.json[c]are no longer supported, since theconfigFileworkspace setting was removed (which is not a problem considering the crawler responsible for finding the necessary config file is doing it's job)
This means, at least for our specific monorepo multi-folder workspace project, the extension is now working with less configuration needed, which is nice.
Adding some caveats, it seems Ctrl + P then reload window, reset the extension and ignore the biome.json from every workspace... Did what @nicksama88 explained and it works 1 time before, it "reset", file not found
