How to get VSCode to load my workspace's nix env

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I’m brand new to nix (started last weekend) I am trying to get my Ruby dev env working. I want to use VS Code with various ruby plugins, and I just migrated from rvm.

I am using direnv ‘use nix’, with in my Ruby on Rails project’s root the following default.nix file:

let
  pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
  oldPackagesSource = fetchTarball {
    url = "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/b312ecf34e110d2d1fda3601c7b5a5a46a41dbfd.tar.gz";
  };

  oldPackages = import oldPackagesSource {};
in
pkgs.mkShell rec
{
  buildInputs = [
    pkgs.imagemagick
    pkgs.libiconv
    pkgs.nodejs
    pkgs.pkg-config
    pkgs.yarn
    pkgs.zlib
    oldPackages.ruby_2_7 # Installs Ruby 2.7.0
  ];

  shellHook=''
    export PATH=~/.gem/ruby/2.7.0/bin:$PATH
  '';
}

It works flawlessly on the terminal, I have access to ruby, node, my gems, as soon as I enter the directory.

Now, I’m trying to get Visual Studio Code to inherit this environment whenever I open this project, and I can’t, for the love of me, get it to work. I am trying to follow this guide over here but whatever I try, my other VS Code extensions can’t find my binaries, or they’re trying to use my system ruby. It’s clear that the PATH is not properly set.

If I start VS Code right away from the terminal using code . from my direnv-enabled directory, it (obviously) inherits the $PATH from my session and everything works like a charm. it somehow also doesn’t work.

I’ve also tried GitHub - arrterian/nix-env-selector: Allows switch environment for Visual Studio Code using Nix Package Manager. which shows the environment, tells me it loaded it, but I get the exact same result.

What am I missing here?

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