blender-dev-start-terminal

name: blender-dev-start-terminal description: Audit what Blender Development executes for Blender: Start and run an equivalent Blender 5.0 terminal flow without relying on the VS Code command.

Blender Development Start (Terminal)

Goal

Understand and reproduce Blender: Start for Blender 5.0 from terminal commands/scripts.

Source of truth

1. out/extension.js

• COMMAND_start delegates to launch helpers.

2. out/blender_executable.js

• Builds process execution: blender.exe --python <launch.py>.
• Exports env vars: ADDONS_TO_LOAD, EDITOR_PORT, VSCODE_*.

3. pythonFiles/launch.py

• Parses ADDONS_TO_LOAD, then calls blender_vscode.startup(...).

4. pythonFiles/include/blender_vscode/__init__.py

• Installs requirements, links addon/extension path, starts communication/debug server, registers dev operators, enables addon.

Workflow

1. Confirm Blender Development extension version/path in the user profile.
2. Confirm workspace addon path and module name.
3. Choose one terminal replication mode:

• direct (recommended): load/register addon directly for interactive work.
• blender-development (parity mode): run the extension launch.py with the same env contract.

4. Execute tools/blender_dev_start.py with Blender 5.0 path.
5. Verify addon loaded in console/logs.

Commands

Direct mode (recommended, no VS Code server dependency):

& "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 5.0\5.0\python\bin\python.exe" tools\blender_dev_start.py --mode direct --blender-exe "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 5.0\blender.exe"

Parity mode (matches Blender Development startup contract):

& "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 5.0\5.0\python\bin\python.exe" tools\blender_dev_start.py --mode blender-development --editor-port 17342 --blender-exe "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 5.0\blender.exe"

Validation

• Startup log includes: [Lime Pipeline] Loading addon from: ...
• addon_utils.check("lime_pipeline") returns loaded True.
• No path corruption in %APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender\5.0\scripts\addons\lime_pipeline.