Debugpy extension in VSCode adds to the global path without leading with semicolon resulting in fake path name

[kolevbg]

New to VSCode and extension, followed mostly Claude's advice and had a good session, but on the next day when opening the terminal and trying to run claude code agian it was just nowhere to be found.
After using the claude's extension in VSCode instead I wanted to know why it was gone and we found that the extension was adding its paths to the user path variable, but without prefixing it with a semicolon.

Path with the extension:
PATH=C:\Users\suppo\Documents\Fuvas\test1\venv\Scripts;C:\Python314\Scripts;C:\Python314;C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.1.0-Q8;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\QBPOSSDKRuntime;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python39\Scripts;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\160\DTS\Binn;C:\Program Files\Azure Data Studio\bin;C:\Program Files\nodejs;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin;C:\Program Files\Azure Data Studio\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Python\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Python\scripts;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\npmc:\Users\suppo.vscode\extensions\ms-python.debugpy-2025.14.1-win32-x64\bundled\scripts\noConfigScript

Path with the extension turned OFF:
PATH=C:\Users\suppo\Documents\Fuvas\test1\venv\Scripts;C:\Python314\Scripts;C:\Python314;C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.1.0-Q8;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\QBPOSSDKRuntime;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python39\Scripts;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\160\DTS\Binn;C:\Program Files\Azure Data Studio\bin;C:\Program Files\nodejs;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin;C:\Program Files\Azure Data Studio\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Python\bin;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Local\Python\scripts;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\npm

The error is in "npmc:" in the path with the extension enabled.

[eleanorjboyd]

Hi! Is this an error with the claude code extension or with the python debugger extension?

[kolevbg]

I realize my post wasn't clear, apologies.
I don't think this had anything to do with Claude other than it being active and helping me through it.
For one, if you look at the higher path you will find the problem in

"C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\npmc:\Users\suppo.vscode\extensions\ms-python.debugpy-2025.14.1-win32-x64\bundled\scripts\noConfigScript"

This leaves it down to these options:

1. vs-code added it path to "C:\Users\suppo\AppData\Roaming\npm" without ensuring there was semicolon first
2. node.js ended the path without semicolon when it was expected to (I don't really know the standard there, I myself believe in ensuring semicolon at the end before adding)
3. Any program - say node.js as it was recently installed - didn't manipulate the path properly and just inserted itself unsuccessfully without proper separator

I.e. theoretically I can't claim I know for a fact this is python debugger installer fault; it is just the most likely, but certainly not the only, explanation looking at the path and the fact that disabling it took care of the problem.