Settings

There are a number of settings for the Dart and Flutter extensions that can be modified in VS Code’s User Settings or Workspace Settings.

The settings described here are documented by their JSON keys, though most of them can also be edited in the settings UI in VS Code by clicking the Dart & Flutter section under Extensions.

Window Scoped Settings
Resource Scoped Settings
Custom Color Settings
- dart.closingLabels
- dart.flutterUiGuides
Diagnostic Settings

Window Scoped Settings

Window scoped settings must be applied in your User Settings or at the workspace level and will apply for all projects open in a window (for example, dart.sdkPath is used to launch an analyzer that is used for the whole window).

dart.additionalAnalyzerFileExtensions

Additional file extensions that should be analyzed (usually used in combination with analyzer plugins).

dart.allowTestsOutsideTestFolder

Default: false.
Whether to consider files ending _test.dart that are outside of the test directory as tests. This should be enabled if you put tests inside the lib directory of your Flutter app so they will be run with flutter test and not flutter run.

dart.analysisServerFolding

Default: true.
Whether to use folding data from the Dart analysis server instead of the built-in VS Code indent-based folding.

dart.analyzeAngularTemplates

Default: true.
Whether to enable analysis for AngularDart templates (requires the Angular analyzer plugin to be enabled in analysis_options.yaml).

dart.analyzerAdditionalArgs

Additional arguments to pass to the Dart analysis server.

dart.analyzerSshHost

An SSH host to run the analysis server. This can be useful when modifying code on a remote machine using SSHFS.

dart.analyzerVmServicePort

The port number to be used for the Dart analysis server VM service.

dart.autoImportCompletions

Default: true.
Whether to include symbols that have not been imported in the code completion list and automatically insert the required import when selecting them (requires restart).

dart.automaticCommentSlashes

Options: "none", "tripleSlash" or "all".
Default: "tripleSlash".
Determines when to insert comment slashes when pressing <enter> in the editor (requires restart).

When using tripleSlash, double-slashes will still be included when breaking existing double-slash comments across additional lines.

none - Never insert slashes automatically.
tripleSlash - Insert /// when pressing <enter> at the end of a triple-slash comment.
all - Insert /// when pressing <enter> at the end of a triple-slash comment and also // when pressing <enter> at the end of a double-slash comment.

dart.buildRunnerAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the build_runner when building/watching/serving.

dart.checkForSdkUpdates

Default: true.
Whether to check you are using the latest version of the Dart SDK at startup.

dart.cliConsole

Options: "debugConsole", "terminal" or "externalTerminal".
Default: "debugConsole".
Whether to run Dart CLI apps in the Debug Console or a terminal. The Debug Console has more functionality because the process is controlled by the debug adapter, but is unable to accept input from the user via stdin.

debugConsole - Run in the Debug Console pane, using the input as a REPL to evaluate expressions.
terminal - Run in the VS Code integrated terminal where input will be sent to stdin.
externalTerminal - Run in an external terminal where input will be sent to stdin.

dart.closingLabels

Default: true.
Whether to show annotations against constructor, method invocations and lists that span multiple lines.

dart.debugExtensionBackendProtocol

Options: "sse" or "ws".
Default: "ws".
The protocol to use for the Dart Debug Extension backend service and injected client. Using WebSockets can improve performance but may fail when connecting through some proxy servers.

sse - Server-Sent Events.
ws - WebSockets.

dart.debugExternalPackageLibraries

Default: false.
Whether to mark external pub package libraries (including package:flutter) as debuggable, enabling stepping into them while debugging.

dart.debugSdkLibraries

Default: false.
Whether to mark Dart SDK libraries (dart:*) as debuggable, enabling stepping into them while debugging.

dart.devToolsBrowser

Options: "chrome" or "default".
Default: "chrome".
Whether to launch external DevTools windows using Chrome or the system default browser.

chrome - Locate and launch Google Chrome from your system.
default - Use your systems default web browser.

dart.devToolsLocation

Options: "beside", "active" or "external".
Default: "beside".

Which editor/column to open Dart DevTools in.

beside - Open DevTools in beside the active editor.
active - Open DevTools over the top of the active editor.
external - Open DevTools externally in its own browser window.

dart.devToolsPort

The port number to be used for the Dart DevTools.

dart.devToolsReuseWindows

Default: true.
Whether to try to reuse existing DevTools windows instead of launching new ones. Only works for instances of DevTools launched by the DevTools server on the local machine.

dart.devToolsTheme

Options: "dark" or "light".
Default: "dark".
The theme to use for Dart DevTools.

dart.enableSdkFormatter

Default: true.
Whether to enable the dart_style formatter for Dart code.

dart.enableServerSnippets

Default: true.
Whether to use code snippets from the Dart Analysis Server instead of those included in the extension. Server snippets are context and language-version aware and should be preferred.

dart.enableSnippets

Default: true.
Whether to include Dart and Flutter snippets in code completion.

dart.env

Default: {}.
Additional environment variables to be added to all Dart/Flutter processes spawned by the Dart and Flutter extensions.

dart.evaluateToStringInDebugViews

Default: true.
Whether to call toString() on objects when rendering them in debug views (such as the Variables, Watch and Hovers views). Only applies to views of 100 or fewer values for performance reasons.

dart.flutterAdbConnectOnChromeOs

Default: false.
Whether to automatically run adb connect 100.115.92.2:5555 when spawning the Flutter daemon when running on Chrome OS.

dart.flutterCreateAndroidLanguage

Options: "java" or "kotlin".
Default: "kotlin".
The programming language to use for Android apps when creating new projects using the ‘Flutter: New Project’ command.

dart.flutterCreateIOSLanguage

Options: "objc" or "swift".
Default: "swift".
The programming language to use for iOS apps when creating new projects using the ‘Flutter: New Project’ command.

dart.flutterCreateOrganization

The organization responsible for your new Flutter project, in reverse domain name notation (e.g. com.google). This string is used in Java package names and as prefix in the iOS bundle identifier when creating new projects using the ‘Flutter: New Project’ command.

dart.flutterCustomEmulators

Custom emulators to show in the emulator list for easier launching. If IDs match existing emulators returned by Flutter, the custom emulators will override them.

dart.flutterGutterIcons

Default: true.
Whether to show Flutter icons and colors in the editor gutter.

dart.flutterHotReloadOnSave

Options: "never", "manual", "manualIfDirty", "all" or "allIfDirty".
Default: "manual".
Whether to automatically send a Hot Reload request to Flutter apps during a debug session when saving files. Dart apps are controlled by the hotReloadOnSave setting.

never - Do not reload when saving.
manual - Reload for explicit manual saves (requires pressing Save explicitly if using autosave).
manualIfDirty - Reload for explicit manual saves (requires pressing Save explicitly if using autosave) only if the saved file had changes.
all - Reload for all saves, manual or automatic.
allIfDirty - Reload for all saves, manual or automatic only if the saved file had changes.

dart.flutterHotRestartOnSave

Default: true.
Whether to automatically send a Hot Restart request during a debug session when saving files if Hot Reload is not available but Hot Restart is.

dart.flutterOutline

Default: true.
Whether to show the Flutter Outline tree in the sidebar.

dart.flutterSelectDeviceWhenConnected

Default: true.
Whether to set newly connected devices as the current device in Flutter projects.

dart.flutterShowEmulators

Options: "local", "always" or "never".
Default: "local".
When to show the Flutter emulators. These are usually hidden for remote workspaces because it is usually not possible to see or interact with emulators in a remote session. If you are using remoting/containers in a way that you can interact with launched emulator processes, you may wish to set this to ‘always’.

local - Only show for local workspaces.
always - Always show, even for remote sessions.
never - Never show emulators.

dart.flutterShowWebServerDevice

Options: "remote" or "always".
Default: "remote".
When to show the Flutter headless web-server device. This requires using the Dart Debug extension for Chrome and is usually only used for remote environments where Chrome is not available such as browser/cloud-based IDEs (requires restart).

remote - Only show for remote workspaces (includes browser-based workspaces).
always - Always show, even for local sessions.

dart.flutterWebRenderer

Options: "auto", "html" or "canvaskit".
Default: "auto".
Sets the Web renderer used for Flutter web apps.

auto - Allow Flutter to pick the best renderer based on the users device.
html - Always use the HTML renderer.
canvaskit - Always use the CanvasKit renderer.

dart.hotReloadOnSave

Options: "never", "manual", "manualIfDirty", "all" or "allIfDirty".
Default: "never".
Whether to automatically send a Hot Reload request to Dart apps during a debug session when saving files. Flutter apps are controlled by the flutterHotReloadOnSave setting.

never - Do not reload when saving.
manual - Reload for explicit manual saves (requires pressing Save explicitly if using autosave).
manualIfDirty - Reload for explicit manual saves (requires pressing Save explicitly if using autosave) only if the saved file had changes.
all - Reload for all saves, manual or automatic.
allIfDirty - Reload for all saves, manual or automatic only if the saved file had changes.

dart.hotReloadProgress

Options: "notification" or "statusBar".
Default: "notification".
Determines how to display Hot Restart and Hot Reload progress.

notification - Hot reload progress will be shown in a toast notification.
statusBar - Hot reload progress will be shown only in the status bar.

dart.lspSnippetTextEdits

Default: true.
Whether to enable Snippet support in LSP TextEdits.

dart.maxCompletionItems

Default: 100000.
The maximum number of completion items to return from a code completion request. Updated results will be fetched as additional characters are typed. Lower numbers may improved performance. Only affects LSP for > Dart SDK 2.17.

dart.maxLogLineLength

Default: 2000.
The maximum length of a line in the log file. Lines longer than this will be truncated and suffixed with an ellipsis.

dart.normalizeFileCasing

Default: false.
Whether to normalize file casings before sending them to the LSP server. This may fix issues with file_names lints not disappearing after renaming a file if the VS Code API continues to use the original casing.

dart.notifyAnalyzerErrors

Default: true.
Whether to show a notification the first few times an analysis server exception occurs.

dart.offline

Default: false.
Whether to use the –offline switch for commands like pub get and ‘Flutter: New Project’.

dart.onlyAnalyzeProjectsWithOpenFiles

Default: false.
Whether to ignore workspace folders and perform analysis based on the open files, as if no workspace was open at all. This allows opening large folders without causing them to be completely analyzed.

dart.openDevTools

Options: "never", "flutter" or "always".
Default: "never".
Whether to automatically open DevTools at the start of a debug session. If embedded DevTools is enabled, this will launch the Widget Inspector embedded for Flutter projects, or launch DevTools externally in a browser for Dart projects.

never - Do not automatically launch DevTools when starting a debug session.
flutter - Automatically launch DevTools when starting a Flutter debug session.
always - Automatically launch DevTools when starting any debug session.

dart.openTestView

Default: [testRunStart].
When to automatically switch focus to the test list (array to support multiple values).

dart.previewBazelWorkspaceCustomScripts

Default: false.
EXPERIMENTAL: Whether to look for custom script definitions at dart/config/intellij-plugins/flutter.json in Bazel workspaces. Currently supported for macOS and Linux only.

dart.previewCommitCharacters

Default: false.
EXPERIMENTAL: Whether to enable commit characters for the LSP server. In a future release, the dart.enableCompletionCommitCharacters setting will also apply to LSP.

dart.previewFlutterUiGuides

Default: false.
EXPERIMENTAL: Whether to enable the Flutter UI Guides preview.

dart.previewFlutterUiGuidesCustomTracking

Default: false.
EXPERIMENTAL: Whether to enable custom tracking of Flutter UI guidelines (to hide some latency of waiting for the next Flutter Outline).

dart.previewHotReloadOnSaveWatcher

Default: false.
Whether to perform hot reload on save based on a filesystem watcher for Dart files rather than using VS Code’s onDidSave event. This allows reloads to trigger when external tools modify Dart source files.

dart.previewSdkDaps

Default: false.
PREVIEW: Whether to use the new debug adapters shipped in the Dart and Flutter SDKs. This setting will only apply if your SDK is new enough to include an appropriate version of the DAP server.

dart.projectSearchDepth

Default: 3.
How many levels (including the workspace roots) down the workspace to search for Dart/Flutter projects. Increasing this number may help detect Flutter projects that are deeply nested in your workspace but slow down all operations that search for projects, including extension activation.

dart.promptToRunIfErrors

Default: true.
Whether to prompt before running if there are errors in your project. Test scripts will be excluded from the check unless they’re the script being run.

dart.renameFilesWithClasses

Options: "never", "prompt" or "always".
Default: "never".
Whether to rename files when renaming classes with matching names (for example renaming ‘class Person’ inside ‘person.dart’). If set to ‘prompt’, will ask each time before renaming. If set to ‘always’, the file will automatically be renamed. This setting requires using LSP and a Dart SDK of at least v2.15.

dart.shareDevToolsWithFlutter

Default: true.
Whether to eagerly run DevTools for Flutter workspaces and share the spawned server with flutter run.

dart.showDartPadSampleCodeLens

Default: true.
Whether to show CodeLens actions in the editor for opening online DartPad samples.

dart.showDevToolsDebugToolBarButtons

Default: true.
Whether to show DevTools buttons in the floating Debug toolbar.

dart.showIgnoreQuickFixes

Default: true.
Whether to show quick fixes for ignoring hints and lints.

dart.showInspectorNotificationsForWidgetErrors

Default: true.
Whether to show notifications for widget errors that offer Inspect Widget links. This requires that the dart.shareDevToolsWithFlutter setting is also enabled.

dart.showMainCodeLens

Default: true.
Whether to show CodeLens actions in the editor for quick running / debugging scripts with main functions.

dart.showSkippedTests

Default: true.
Whether to show skipped tests in the test tree.

dart.showTestCodeLens

Default: true.
Whether to show CodeLens actions in the editor for quick running / debugging tests.

dart.showTodos

Default: true.
Whether to show TODOs in the Problems list.

dart.updateDevTools

Default: true.
Whether to update DevTools if you are not using the latest version. This only applies to SDKs prior to Dart v2.15, since DevTools is included in the SDK since v2.15.

dart.updateImportsOnRename

Default: true.
Whether to automatically update imports when moving or renaming files. Currently only supports single file moves / renames.

dart.useLsp

Default: true.
Whether to run the analyzer in LSP mode. Some features are not supported if this setting is disabled and in a future release LSP will be the only supported option.

dart.warnWhenEditingFilesInPubCache

Default: true.
Whether to show a warning when modifying files in the system package cache directory.

dart.warnWhenEditingFilesOutsideWorkspace

Default: true.
Whether to show a warning when modifying files outside of the workspace.

Resource Scoped Settings

Resource scoped settings can be set in individual workspace folder settings and apply to resources within that workspace folder (for example each workspace folder could have its own dart.lineLength).

dart.analysisExcludedFolders

An array of paths to be excluded from Dart analysis. This option should usually be set at the Workspace level. Excluded folders will also be ignored when detecting project types.

dart.analyzerPath

The path to a custom Dart analysis server.

dart.cliAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the dart command when running CLI scripts. Using the args/toolArgs fields in launch.json is usually better than this setting as this setting will apply to all projects.

dart.completeFunctionCalls

Default: true.
Whether to insert parentheses and placeholders for positional and required arguments during code completions when using LSP. This feature is automatically disabled if commit characters are enabled.

dart.doNotFormat

An array of glob patterns that should be excluded for formatting. The pattern is matched against the absolute path of the file. Use [ "**/test/**" ] to skip formatting for all test directories.

dart.enableCompletionCommitCharacters

Default: false.
Whether to automatically commit the selected completion item when pressing certain keys such as . , ( and [. This setting does not currently apply to LSP, see dart.previewCommitCharacters.

dart.evaluateGettersInDebugViews

Default: true.
Whether to evaluate getters in order to display them in debug views (such as the Variables, Watch and Hovers views).

dart.flutterAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to all flutter commands including flutter daemon. Do not use this to pass arguments to your Flutter app, use the args field in a launch.json or the #dart.flutterRunAdditionalArgs# setting.

dart.flutterAttachAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the flutter attach command. Using the args/toolArgs fields in launch.json is usually better than this setting as this setting will apply to all projects.

dart.flutterRunAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the flutter run command. Using the args/toolArgs fields in launch.json is usually better than this setting as this setting will apply to all projects.

dart.flutterScreenshotPath

The path to a directory to save Flutter screenshots.

dart.flutterSdkPath

The location of the Flutter SDK to use. If blank (or not a valid SDK), Dart Code will attempt to find it from the project directory, FLUTTER_ROOT environment variable and the PATH environment variable.

dart.flutterSdkPaths

An array of paths that either directly point to a Flutter SDK or the parent directory of multiple Flutter SDKs that can be used for fast SDK switching. These paths are not used directly when searching for an SDK. When this setting is populated, the version number in the status bar can be used to quickly switch between SDKs.

dart.flutterTestAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the flutter test command. Using the args/toolArgs fields in launch.json is usually better than this setting as this setting will apply to all projects.

dart.flutterTrackWidgetCreation

Default: true.
Whether to pass --track-widget-creation to Flutter apps (required to support ‘Inspect Widget’). This setting is always ignored when running in Profile or Release mode.

dart.insertArgumentPlaceholders

Default: true.
Whether to insert argument placeholders during code completions. This feature is automatically disabled when enableCompletionCommitCharacters is enabled. This setting does not apply to LSP, instead see the dart.completeFunctionCalls setting.

dart.lineLength

Default: 80.
The maximum length of a line of code. This is used by the document formatter.

dart.promptToGetPackages

Default: true.
Whether to prompt to get packages when opening a project with out of date packages.

dart.pubAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to all pub commands.

dart.runPubGetOnPubspecChanges

Default: true.
Whether to automatically run pub get whenever pubspec.yaml is saved.

dart.sdkPath

The location of the Dart SDK to use for analyzing and executing code. If blank (or not a valid SDK), Dart Code will attempt to find it from the PATH environment variable. When editing a Flutter project, the version of Dart included in the Flutter SDK is used in preference.

dart.sdkPaths

An array of paths that either directly point to a Dart SDK or the parent directory of multiple Dart SDKs that can be used for fast SDK switching. These paths are not used directly when searching for an SDK. When this setting is populated, the SDK version number in the status bar can be used to quickly switch between SDKs.

dart.showDartDeveloperLogs

Default: true.
Whether to show logs from the dart:developer log() function in the debug console.

dart.suppressTestTimeouts

Options: "never", "debug" or "always".
Default: "never".
Whether to suppress test timeouts when running/debugging tests. To work properly this requires package:test version 1.20.1 or newer. For older versions, the default timeout will be increased to 1d but this will not affect tests that have explicit (non-factor) timeouts set with @timeout.

never - Do not suppress test timeouts.
debug - Suppress test timeouts when Debugging.
always - Suppress test timeouts both when Running and Debugging.

dart.testAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the dart test command. Using the args/toolArgs fields in launch.json is usually better than this setting as this setting will apply to all projects.

dart.vmAdditionalArgs

Additional args to pass to the Dart VM when running/debugging command line apps or Dart test scripts.

Custom Color Settings

Some colors in Dart Code can be customized using the workbench.colorCustomizations section in settings. Supported colors are:

dart.closingLabels

The color of the ‘closing label’ annotations shown against constructor, method invocations and lists that span multiple lines. If not supplied, the color for tab.inactiveForeground will be used.

dart.flutterUiGuides

The color of the Flutter UI Guidelines shown in the editor.

Diagnostic Settings

There are several settings for enabling logging of various services used by Dart Code. For more information about setting these up and troubleshooting please see Enabling Logging.

dart.analyzerDiagnosticsPort

The port number to be used for the Dart analyzer diagnostic server.

dart.analyzerInstrumentationLogFile

The path to a log file for very detailed logging in the Dart analysis server that may be useful when trying to diagnose analysis server issues. For more information on capturing these logs, see Analyzer Instrumentation Logging.

dart.analyzerLogFile

The path to a log file for communication between Dart Code and the analysis server. For more information on capturing these logs, see Analyzer Logging.

dart.dapLogFile

The path to a log file for communication with the DAP debug adapters. This is useful when trying to diagnose issues with debugging such as missed breakpoints.

dart.dartTestLogFile

The path to a log file for Dart test runs. This is useful when trying to diagnose issues with unit test executions. Use ${name} in the log file name to prevent concurrent debug sessions overwriting each others logs.

dart.devToolsLogFile

The path to a low-traffic log file for the Dart DevTools service.

dart.extensionLogFile

The path to a low-traffic log file for basic extension and editor issues. For more information on capturing these logs, see Extension Logging.

dart.flutterDaemonLogFile

The path to a log file for the flutter daemon service, which provides information about connected devices to show in the status bar. For more information on capturing these logs, see Flutter Daemon Logging.

dart.flutterRunLogFile

The path to a log file for flutter run, which is used to launch Flutter apps from VS Code. This is useful when trying to diagnose issues with apps launching (or failing to) on simulators and devices. Use ${name} in the log file name to prevent concurrent debug sessions overwriting each others logs. For more information on capturing these logs, see Flutter Run Logging.

dart.flutterTestLogFile

The path to a log file for flutter test, which is used to run unit tests from VS Code. This is useful when trying to diagnose issues with unit test executions. Use ${name} in the log file name to prevent concurrent debug sessions overwriting each others logs. For more information on capturing these logs, see Flutter Test Logging.

dart.vmServiceLogFile

The path to a log file for communication between Dart Code and the VM service. This is useful when trying to diagnose issues with debugging such as missed breakpoints. Use ${name} in the log file name to prevent concurrent debug sessions overwriting each others logs.

dart.webDaemonLogFile

The path to a log file for communication between Dart Code and the webdev daemon. This is useful when trying to diagnose issues with launching web apps. Use ${name} in the log file name to prevent concurrent debug sessions overwriting each others logs.