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P: Debug session never completes (no error, no automation prompt) despite core library working correctly — VS Code 1.138.0, macOS 26.6.2, Apple Silicon

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Environment

VS Code: 1.138.0 (Universal build)
OS: macOS 26.6.2, Apple Silicon
Extension: ExtendScript Debugger 2.1.0 (Adobe)
Target apps tested: Photoshop 2026 (200.064), Illustrator (30.064)

Issue
Running or attaching a debug session via VS Code's Run and Debug panel never completes. Selecting "Launch Script in ExtendScript Engine" and pressing F5 (or using the "Eval in Adobe..." status bar action) produces no visible effect:

No alert() dialog appears in the target application
No error appears in the Debug Console or Extension Host logs
No macOS Automation permission prompt is ever shown, and VS Code never appears under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation
The Run and Debug panel shows a persistent loading/spinner state with no resolution

What I've already ruled out
To narrow this down, I loaded the extension's native module directly via Node, bypassing VS Code entirely:

js

const m = require('.../lib/esdebugger-core/mac/esdcorelibinterface.node');
m.esdInitialize('vscesd', process.pid);
m.esdGetInstalledApplicationSpecifiers();

This succeeds cleanly:

esdInitialize returns { status: 0 }
esdIsInitialized() returns true
esdGetInstalledApplicationSpecifiers() correctly returns all installed Adobe apps, including photoshop-200.064 and illustrator-30.064

I also confirmed:

No quarantine flags on the extension's binaries (esdcorelibinterface.node, AID.dylib)
Both are proper universal binaries (arm64 + x86_64)
Rosetta is installed and functional
A clean reinstall of the extension didn't change the behavior

Question
Since the native core library correctly initializes and detects installed applications when called directly, the OS-level layer (permissions, binary architecture, quarantine, Rosetta) appears to be fully ruled out. The failure seems to be somewhere in the extension's own session orchestration — the code that calls esdSendDebugMessage / esdPumpSession and wires up the async response handling inside the VS Code extension host — since that layer never surfaces an error or even attempts the automation permission handshake with the target app.

Has anyone seen a similar silent failure with a recent VS Code build (1.13x) on macOS 26.x, and is there a known fix or workaround for getting the debug session's message pump/handshake to actually initiate?

V

VinumVinum

Participant

Same problem here. Anyone got a solution?

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Janus Bahs Jacquet

Inspiring

It’s apparently a known issue with the latest version(s) of Photoshop. See this comment by ErinF on the linked question.

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Janus Bahs Jacquet

Inspiring

This sounds like the same issue as the one I asked about yesterday (hadn’t found this thread when I posted). Seems to still be an issue with Photoshop 27.11.

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Janus Bahs Jacquet

Inspiring

I’m fairly (though not 100%) sure I’ve used the VSCode debugging extension for Photoshop before, but I can’t get it to work currently.

If I try to initiate a debug session, the debugging icon in the vertical menu on the left gets its ‘running’ badge, and a little blue line appears just under the “Run and Debug” section top left, running from left to right to indicate that something is being worked on, like so (the blue line under the g in ‘Debug’ here):

And that’s how it stays – nothing more happens. No error message, no timeout, no debug session – nada.

Initiating a debug session with InDesign using a configuration that is completely identical (except for the host app specifier, of course) works fine – it’s just Photoshop where it doesn’t work.

This is the configuration I’m using:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "extendscript-debug",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Current file",
      "script": "${file}",
      "hostAppSpecifier": "photoshop-200.064",
      "engineName": "main"
    }
  ]
}

I’ve tried leaving out the host app specifier so I have to choose it from a drop-down list – that made no difference. I’ve closed and restarted both VSCode and Photoshop – also no difference. This happens with all scripts (including some with `#target photoshop` at the top and some without).

What can be causing this behaviour?

[M2 Mac Studio, macOS Sequoia 15.8, Photoshop 2026 (27.11.0), VSCode 1.117.0, Extendscript Debugger 2.1.0]

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Pedro Cortez Marques

Legend

I tested PS2026 on several last versions and this happens only at the recent one. All the other previous versions if works.

PS2026 v 27.10 it doesn’t work from VSC and Adobe Debugger extension
PS2026 v 27.9.1 and all the previous ones it works.

Can’t explain why.

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ErinF

Community Manager

Hi there!

We are investigating this. A similar issue happened in Illustrator that appears to have been solved… I’ll add JIRA notes for Adobe employees reading this.

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Pedro Cortez Marques

Legend

Perfect! And make them be sure next versions don’t break it again once they understood why.

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