Can't format Python documents

[stravant]

Type: Bug

• Open a Python file

• Try to Format

• Get popup saying "There is no formatter installed"

• Click "Install formatter..."

• Click the top result.

• That's this extension... which I already have installed... but it doesn't work.

Expected behavior:

• When I follow the natural flow and click the top result... it works. Like it does with literally every other language.

Extension version: 2024.22.0
VS Code version: Code 1.94.2 (Universal) (384ff7382de624fb94dbaf6da11977bba1ecd427, 2024-10-09T16:08:44.566Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 22.3.0
Modes:

• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): 3.10.11
• Type of virtual environment used (e.g. conda, venv, virtualenv, etc.): Global
• Value of the python.languageServer setting: Default

User Settings

languageServer: "Pylance"

Installed Extensions

Extension Name	Extension Id	Version
C/C++	ms-vscode.cpptools	1.22.11
C/C++ Extension Pack	ms-vscode.cpptools-extension-pack	1.3.0
C/C++ Themes	ms-vscode.cpptools-themes	2.0.0
Clang-Format	xaver.clang-format	1.9.0
CMake	twxs.cmake	0.0.17
CMake Tools	ms-vscode.cmake-tools	1.19.52
JavaScript Debugger	ms-vscode.js-debug	1.94.0
JavaScript Debugger Companion Extension	ms-vscode.js-debug-companion	1.1.3
Pylance	ms-python.vscode-pylance	2024.11.3
Python	ms-python.python	2024.22.0
Python Debugger	ms-python.debugpy	2024.14.0
Rojo - Roblox Studio Sync	evaera.vscode-rojo	2.1.2
Table Visualizer for JavaScript Profiles	ms-vscode.vscode-js-profile-table	1.0.10

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M2 Max (12 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)	3, 4, 5
Memory (System)	64.00GB (19.21GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 69a9cd57-b81a-4780-ae45-b10cb323f10d
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

A/B Experiments

vsliv368:30146709
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805:30301674
binariesv615:30325510
vsaa593:30376534
py29gd2263:31024239
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
a9j8j154:30646983
962ge761:30959799
pythonnoceb:30805159
pythonmypyd1:30879173
2e7ec940:31000449
pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dsvsc020:30976470
pythonait:31006305
dsvsc021:30996838
dvdeprecation:31068756
dwnewjupyter:31046869
nativerepl2:31139839
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc2:31192216
cf971741:31144450
iacca1:31171482
notype1cf:31157160
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
stablechunks:31184530
6074i472:31201624

[karthiknadig]

We don't control the marketplace results, unfortunately we don't even have a way to filter this. The query itself comes from VS Code core. Since python has several formatting options, you need to search for the formatter you want to use like black, autopep8, ruff etc.

@sandy081 Is there a way to contribute to the query, or provide suggestions for these cases?

[sandy081]

@karthiknadig Can you please explain me the user flow and what results are you expecting to see extensions view?

[karthiknadig]

If you install just Python Extension, then click on format document, you get a dialog that says please install a formatter from the extension store. This opens the extension view and shows Python extension, and not the formatting extensions like Black Formatter, Ruff or autopep8.

[sandy081]

you get a dialog that says please install a formatter from the extension store.

I assume this dialog is shown by the python extension and the buttons in the dialog are also from python extension. If so, then I believe you would be using this command workbench.extensions.search to show the extensions view. While invoking the command you can pass a search string - that can show the extensions you would like to show.

[karthiknadig]

@sandy081 It is this dialog, which is shown by Core. You get this dialog by triggering formatting from the command palette.

[sandy081]

@karthiknadig Install Formatter... action is opening extensions view with search term ``category:formatters ${langName}. In the above case it could be category:formatters yaml` which seems good to me. Lets ask for the search term user is seeing

cc @jrieken

[karthiknadig]

This is what you get for python, and none of the formatting extensions are shown. All first party formatting extensions have "formatter" category and keyword python. But they don't show up.

They are in the second page, even though they have significantly more downloads: