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VSCode: Using Black to automatically format Python

Adam Lombard on April 30, 2020

Black is "the uncompromising Python code formatter." It can be configured to automatically format your code whenever you save a file in VSCode. In...
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Waylon Walker • • Edited

I generally need to pass in the black path as well. This might be compatibility issues with wsl.

pipx install black
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settings.json

  "python.formatting.provider": "black",
  "python.formatting.blackPath": "/home/<user>/.local/bin/black",
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additionally you can turn on automatic formatting on save

"editor.formatOnSave": true,
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if you don't want automatic formatting on save for every language

  "editor.formatOnSave": false,
  "[python]": {
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
   },
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Luqman Jr •

Thanks
What if I want to override (88) the default chars per line?

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Waylon Walker •

You can add this to your pyproject.toml, ~/.black, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/black, or ~/.config/black

[tool.black]
line-length = 88
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black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usa...

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Adam Lombard • • Edited

I'm a fan of using pyproject.toml, but as an alternative to Waylon's comment regarding config files, you can also configure the line length in VSCode.

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Attila Molnar •

I am just doing a code review and this post was perfect for me to link it inside a comment about an illformted code. Thank you.

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Nguyễn Minh Tuấn •

good :D

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Marc Anthony Card •

Thanks for the quick write up Adam. I was recently referred to start using Black and was curious about getting it running with VSC. This is exactly what I was looking for!

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Adam Lombard •

Glad it was helpful! :)

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Eugene Kuzmenko •

can I use it with *.rpy Ren'Py files?