SciStack Pipeline GUI — VS Code Extension
Visual pipeline builder for SciStack scientific data processing.
Install
The extension is the front end; the work happens in the scistack-gui Python package, which you install into your project's environment at the same version as the extension (both are released together from one tag):
pip install scistack-gui==<extension version>
The extension version is shown on its page in the Extensions view. If the two drift apart (the Marketplace auto-updates the extension; pip never updates your venv), the extension warns on startup with the exact pip install command, and logs both versions to the SciStack Output Channel.
Usage
Run SciStack: Open Pipeline from the Command Palette and select a .duckdb file (and optionally a pipeline .py module).
Python Interpreter
The extension spawns a Python child process that must have scistack-gui installed. It picks an interpreter in this order:
- The
scistack.pythonPath setting, if set.
- The active interpreter reported by the VS Code Python extension (
ms-python.python).
python3 on PATH as a last resort.
Note that VS Code does not inherit a venv from the shell it was launched from. If you rely on a virtual environment, either set scistack.pythonPath to that venv's python, or install the Python extension and select your interpreter via "Python: Select Interpreter".
When the server fails to start
If the child process never reaches "ready", the extension probes the interpreter it used (importlib.util.find_spec for scistack_gui, scidb, scifor, duckdb — no imports are executed) and reports which of these went wrong:
| Diagnosis |
Meaning |
interpreter_missing |
The interpreter path could not be executed at all (bad scistack.pythonPath, or the Windows python3 Store alias). |
package_missing |
The interpreter runs, but that environment has no scistack_gui. |
dependency_missing |
scistack_gui is installed, but something it imports at startup (e.g. scidb) is not. |
startup_timeout |
The server started but never signalled ready within scistack.startupTimeoutMs of silence. |
server_error |
The server crashed; the exception line is quoted in the message. |
The notification always names the interpreter that was used and where that path came from. The full report — configured path, sys.executable, sys.prefix, version, per-package locations, spawn command, exit code, and the tail of the server's stderr — is written to the SciStack Output Channel ("Show Details").
Tests
npm test # tsc -p tsconfig.test.json && node --test dist/test scripts
Covers the startup-failure diagnostics (src/startupDiagnostics.test.ts). Only vscode-free modules are compiled into dist/test.
MATLAB
Debugging MATLAB code in VS Code
To hit breakpoints in your MATLAB pipeline functions when they are called via the SciStack-generated run command, the MathWorks MATLAB extension must be configured to attach its debugger automatically:
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,)
- Search for MATLAB: Start Debugger Automatically
- Check the checkbox
Without this setting enabled, breakpoints set in .m files will not be hit when code runs in the MATLAB Command Window.
