Add site-packages watchers

[edvilme]

package.sync.mp4

This pull request refactors and centralizes the logic for watching Python package changes across different environment managers (system, conda, poetry). The new approach introduces a shared utility to handle file system watching for package metadata, ensuring more robust and consistent package refresh behavior when environments change.

Key improvements and changes:

Centralized Package Watcher Logic:

• Added a new module, packageWatcher.ts, which provides watchPackageChangesForEnvironment and registerPackageWatcherForManager to handle file watching and package refresh for any environment manager. This replaces duplicated logic in each manager.

Refactoring of Environment Managers:

• Updated main.ts files for system, conda, and poetry managers to use the new registerPackageWatcherForManager function, removing their own package watcher and debounce logic. This simplifies each manager and ensures consistency. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Improved Robustness and Maintainability:

• The new watcher logic automatically tracks the active environment, ensuring watchers are always up-to-date and resources are cleaned up appropriately.

Platform and Environment Awareness:

• The watcher targets are now tailored to different platforms (Windows, Unix) and environment types (including conda), ensuring accurate detection of package changes.

[eleanorjboyd]

Thanks for looking into this! Can you confirm there is no slow down or lag with these extra watchers? I also saw you used a debounce but testing it with a ton of changes at once maybe and making sure it works effectively that would be great. Thanks!

[edvilme]

Sure thing, will do more testing for performance. Thanks for taking a look! :)

[edvilme]

The new approach should actually be more efficient -- the old code used a single global **/site-packages/*.dist-info/METADATA watcher across the entire workspace and refreshed all projects on any change. Now we use RelativePattern scoped to each active environment's sysPrefix, so VS Code watches a narrow directory and only refreshes the affected environment. Watchers are disposed on environment switch (no accumulation), and the 500ms debounce coalesces rapid events like pip install into a single refresh.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR centralizes Python package change detection by introducing a shared site-packages watcher utility and wiring it into multiple environment managers (system, venv, conda, poetry). It also extends the PackageManager API to optionally provide manager-specific watch targets (e.g., conda’s conda-meta) and adds a user setting to enable/disable the watchers.

Changes:

• Added src/managers/common/packageWatcher.ts to create per-environment filesystem watchers with debounced package refresh.
• Updated builtin and poetry managers to register the shared watcher instead of bespoke logic.
• Extended PackageManager with getPackageWatchTargets?() and added a python-envs.packageWatchers setting (localized).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 10 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/managers/common/packageWatcher.ts	New shared watcher implementation for site-packages + manager-specific targets.
src/managers/builtin/main.ts	Removes duplicated watcher logic; registers shared watcher for sys + venv managers.
src/managers/poetry/main.ts	Registers shared package watcher for Poetry environments.
src/managers/conda/condaPackageManager.ts	Adds conda-specific watch target provider (conda-meta/**/*.json).
src/api.ts	Extends PackageManager interface with getPackageWatchTargets?().
api/src/main.ts	Mirrors API surface change for published API package.
examples/sample1/src/api.ts	Mirrors API surface change for sample API typings.
package.json	Adds new python-envs.packageWatchers configuration setting.
package.nls.json	Adds localized description for the new setting.
src/test/managers/common/packageWatcher.unit.test.ts	Adds unit tests for watcher target creation/registration behavior.