v0.30.0 only works after specifying ASDF_DIR / ASDF_DATA_DIR

[eslksw]

I spent almost three hours trying to run v0.30.0 on the "standard", Microsoft-branded VS Code binary on my Arch Linux with Elixir v1.19.2-otp-28 and Erlang v28.1.1 installed through ASDF, but whatever I did, the extension could not find my ASDF-installed Elixir. Ultimately, I tried setting ASDF_DIR and ASDF_DATA_DIR, and based on the shell script, I guess it's ASDF_DATA_DIR that did the trick (since ASDF_DIR doesn't get read for version greater than 0.16). I feel like this should be somewhere in "Troubleshooting" on the README. I can contribute a PR if necessary, just for the love of the next fellow going mad like me.

[lukaszsamson]

Is your asdf setup non standard? According to https://asdf-vm.com/manage/configuration.html#asdf-data-dir

ASDF_DATA_DIR: If Unset: $HOME/.asdf if it exists, or else the value of ASDF_DIR
ASDF_DIR: If Unset: the parent directory of the bin/asdf executable is used

[eslksw]

After a fresh installation of ASDF on Arch Linux, it seems that these two variables are left unset. Maybe then it's an issue of the ASDF's Arch build?

[lukaszsamson]

I'm not using Arch so I cannot tell. Anyway, feel free to raise a PR improving the docs

[weaversam8]

I also seemed to encounter a version this issue - neither environment variable is set in my shell, but it seems to fail to find the default values and also seems to run the elixir-ls start script in another directory than my project. (Therefore, it doesn't pick up my project Elixir version but instead uses the system default):

2026-03-12 14:56:32.206 [error] [Window] [Extension Host] Running /Users/<username>/.vscode/extensions/jakebecker.elixir-ls-0.30.0/elixir-ls-release/launch.sh
Preferred shell is zsh, relaunching
Looking for asdf install
asdf executable found at /opt/homebrew/bin/asdf. Using ASDF_DIR=, ASDF_DATA_DIR=.
Installing ElixirLS release v0.30.0
Running in /