Setting Up Run by Line and Debugging for Notebooks

The Run by Line and Debugging features for Python notebooks requires ipykernel v6.0.0 or greater to be installed in the notebook's kernel.

Anaconda

1. Use Anaconda Navigator or an Anaconda prompt to install ipykernel into your desired notebook environment.
2. Close and reopen VS Code and your desired notebook. The Developer: Reload Window command works well for this.

Pip

1. Open a Python terminal and activate your desired notebook environment.
2. Run pip install -U ipykernel
3. Close and reopen VS Code and your desired notebook. The Developer: Reload Window command works well for this.

Troubleshooting

Ensure that ipykernel version 6.0.0 or greater is installed in the environment you're using for your notebook. Execute the following code snippet to check:

code	example
import ipykernel ipykernel.__version__

Ensure that you're using a kernel based on Python 3.7 or greater.

code	example
import sys sys.version

Ensure you're using VS Code v1.60 or greater.

Ensure you're have Jupyter Extension v2021.9 or greater installed.

Ensure you've restarted VS Code after verifying all of the above.

See more details in the IPython documentation.

If you think ipykernel is installed correctly but are still having issues, please feel free to log a bug with further details.