Understanding python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols in Pylance

April 8, 2026 · View on GitHub

Pylance is a powerful language server for Python in Visual Studio Code, offering advanced features like IntelliSense, type checking, auto-imports, and more. One of the settings that influence Pylance's workspace symbol search behavior is python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols.

This guide explains what the python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols setting does, how it affects Workspace Symbol search, and how to configure it.

What is `python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols`?

The python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols setting controls whether Pylance includes symbols from installed packages in the active virtual environment's site-packages directory when you use Workspace Symbol search (Ctrl+T / Cmd+T).

By default, Workspace Symbol search only returns symbols from your own project files (user code). Enabling this setting expands the search to include symbols from third-party packages installed in your virtual environment.

The `python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols` Setting

Accepted Values

false (default): Workspace Symbol search only includes symbols from user code.
true: Workspace Symbol search also includes symbols from packages in the active venv's site-packages and dist-packages directories.

Default Value

The default value is false.

How to Change the Setting

To adjust the python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols setting:

Open Settings and search for python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols.
Toggle the setting on or off.

Alternatively, edit your settings.json file directly:

Open Command Palette, type Preferences: Open Settings (JSON), and select it.

Add or update the following line:

"python.analysis.includeVenvInWorkspaceSymbols": true

Performance Considerations

Enabling this setting may slow down Workspace Symbol search because Pylance needs to search through additional indexed symbols from installed packages.

The depth of sub-packages searched is controlled by python.analysis.packageIndexDepths. Increase the depth for a specific package to include symbols from deeper sub-modules.

python.analysis.indexing: Must be enabled for library symbol indexing. If indexing is disabled, this setting has no effect.
python.analysis.packageIndexDepths: Controls how deep into each package Pylance indexes sub-modules.
python.analysis.includeExtraPathSymbolsInSymbolSearch: Similar setting for including symbols from python.analysis.extraPaths directories.