Skip to main content

2026-09-05-vscode-flutter-sdk-path

title: "The VS Code Flutter SDK path in your project points at a Windows path with a version in it" affects: dartway_cli: "0.10.0"​

Who is affected​

Every project created by dartway create before 2026-09-05. The file is in your repository, so fixing the skeleton does not reach you — this is the only thing that does.

Open <project>_flutter/.vscode/settings.json and look:

{ "dart.flutterSdkPath": ".fvm\\versions\\3.44.0" }

Two things are wrong with that one line.

It is a Windows path. On macOS and Linux there is no directory named .fvm\versions\3.44.0 — the separator is part of the file name. The Dart extension does not complain about a path it cannot resolve; it quietly falls back to whatever Flutter is on your PATH, which is precisely the SDK fvm exists to stop you from using. Your editor then analyses against one SDK while your builds use another, and nothing anywhere says so.

The version is baked in. .fvmrc is the file that names the SDK. This is a second copy of that number in a file nothing regenerates, so it goes stale the moment .fvmrc moves — and stale in the way that produces a "works on my machine".

What to change​

{ "dart.flutterSdkPath": ".fvm/flutter_sdk" }

.fvm/flutter_sdk is the symlink fvm maintains for exactly this: no separator problem, no version to keep in step. fvm itself warns about the other form — "SDK Path points to project directory, but does not use the flutter_sdk symlink. Using fvm use will break the project."

If the project has several Flutter packages, each has its own .vscode/settings.json.

How to check​

Reload the window and open any Dart file. The status bar names the SDK the analyzer is using: it should be the version in .fvmrc, not the one from PATH. .fvm/flutter_sdk appears after fvm use has run in that package at least once — the directory is git-ignored, which is why the setting can be committed while the link is local.