vscode-wpilib: Project creation fails with "Cannot create into non empty folder"

[nullcubee]

Trying to use the vscode-wpilib extension as packaged in FRC-Nix to create a project fails with the error "Cannot create into non empty folder," even though the targeted folder is empty.

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Steps to reproduce:

1. Open VSCode with vscode-wpilib extension installed
2. Press Control+Shift+P to run "WPILib: Create a new project".
3. Select project type as "template" "java" (or "cpp") and "Command Robot"
4. Set base folder, project name, and team number
5. Click "Generate Project"
6. "Cannot create into non empty folder"

This results in just a src folder containing a template project structure with files that are all read-only for some reason, wondering if this is related.

You can see the vscode configuration as tested here. This has also been tested without the FHS version of vscode, with the same results.

Creating a project works perfectly fine with the standard WPILib installer on a traditional Linux system (such as Linux Mint), so I can only assume that this is a FRC-Nix/NixOS problem.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Am I missing a dependency, is this a config issue, or is this a packaging issue?

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CC: @Zynh0722, who first brought this issue to my attention.

[taciturnaxolotl]

hmm thats odd; can you try dumping logs for the extension?

[nullcubee]

I'm not sure if I'm looking in the right place, ("Developer: Open Extension Logs Folder" ?) but this appears to be about it:

exthost.log

2026-03-01 17:39:20.383 [info] Extension host with pid 3269 started
2026-03-01 17:39:20.697 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.github-authentication, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onAuthenticationRequest:github'
2026-03-01 17:39:20.979 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.git-base, startup: true, activationEvent: '*', root cause: vscode.git
2026-03-01 17:39:21.075 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.git, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
2026-03-01 17:39:21.264 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.github, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
2026-03-01 17:39:21.714 [info] Eager extensions activated
2026-03-01 17:39:21.844 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.debug-auto-launch, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
2026-03-01 17:39:21.857 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.merge-conflict, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
2026-03-01 17:39:21.928 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscodevim.vim, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
2026-03-01 17:39:23.581 [error] Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/nerdherd4043/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/vscodevim.vim/.registers'
2026-03-01 17:39:47.140 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.emmet, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage'
2026-03-01 17:39:53.636 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension wpilibsuite.vscode-wpilib, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onCommand:wpilibcore.createNewProject'

[nullcubee]

oh also found the wpilib logs: wpilibtoollog.txt https://gist.github.com/nullcubee/c65147bb5d4b99e088f063beebb17a74

[nullcubee]

this does seem to imply that the issue is definitely related to the weird file permissions, but why would they be getting set to be read only in the first place?

[taciturnaxolotl]

im guessing since its pulled from the nix store so its read only immutable by default

[nullcubee]

ah, yeah, that'd do it I think. Any ideas on how to fix it? My current thinking is patching the plugin to set the mode, or maybe find a way to get the plugin to pull from a different location, or something?

[taciturnaxolotl]

sorry its been a minute; I am still looking into this, just had wisdom teeth surgery, so that knocked me out for a few days

[taciturnaxolotl]

Opened a PR upstream as patching looks like a nightmare with the minification wpilibsuite/vscode-wpilib#854