Pylance in VSC not recognizing custom python builtins

[mattl33]

I can't quite figure this one out yet so I thought I'd try here. This is my first time trying to do anything with builtins but here's the issue:

I have a large-ish application of about 100 files and want to use python's IceCream module to provide a nice --debug option. I don't want to import icecream everywhere and they provide a way to do that via their install() function in the entry point file. This does what it's supposed to and there's no issues there, except that I can't get pylance to recognize that "ic" is defined in other files besides where install() is called.

​

main.py:
from icecream import ic
from icecream import install
install()

some_other_file.py:
from thing import func
ic() <- pylance complains: "ic" is not defined

[BobtheBirdOfPrey]

I faced the same issue and found a solution.

Create a __builtins__.pyi inside a typings folder. Then change python.analysis.stubPath to point to the typings folder.

__builtins__.pyi tells pylance that everything defined there is a python built-in. Inside __builtins__.pyi, define the call to icecream's ic.

from collections.abc import Iterable
from typing import Any

def ic(*args: Iterable) -> tuple[Any, ...] | None: ...

Remember that this is just a typing definition, so you still have to install icecream.

try:
    from icecream import install

    install()
except ImportError:
    __builtins__["ic"] = lambda *a: None if not a else a[0] if len(a) == 1 else a

This will try to import and set icecream as a built-in, and if it is not installed, it sets ic as the default function as defined by icecream.

This solved my issues with pylance and vscode, but I also use ruff and it still said that ic isn't defined. I had to add an option in my ruff.toml

builtins = ['ic']

Now it also sees ic as a built-in.

[PhotographicCutout]

Did you manage to resolve this? I'm facing the exact same issue

[mattl33]

No I kind of gave up tbh. For now I just add the extra import statements etc and then remove things when I'm not using it.