How do I fix squiggly underlines for CPP include files when using VSCode?

Development Getting Started & Setup
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1

How do I set up include paths properly when using VSCode with unreal engine so that error squiggles work correctly? They are set up so that I can build properly in one configuration “Unscramble1Editor Editor Win64 Development (Unscramble1)”, but VSCode seems to use a different configuration for determining which include files are not found and adding the squiggly underlines.

I found a Win32 configuration, and I set the include path there, but I still see that it can’t find
CoreMinimal.h.

Below is my c_cpp_properties.json. I am making sure to build the “Unscramble1Editor Editor Win64 Development (Unscramble1)” configuration, and it builds successfully, but I still see errors:
image

I’ve tried adding a “Win32” config with the include path set correctly, and trying without the Win32 configuration. I’ve tried resetting the intellisense cache. I’ve tried asking LLMs, but no luck so far, I would be very grateful for anyone who can tell me how to solve this problem.

I’ve tried following the instructions here: Setting Up Visual Studio Code for Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation | Epic Developer Community. I was able to follow them all except setting C_Cpp: IntelliSense Engine Fallback - I could no longer find that option in vscode (perhaps it has been renamed and the Unreal VSCode setup documentation needs to be updated).

I do see my configuration name in the status bar at the bottom, but I don’t see the database icon mentioned by the Unreal VSCode setup article.
image

2

It might depend on the version of VSCode you’re using. Can you share that?

You said it builds successfully but it still has errors. Are the errors impacting your build? What are those errors?

3

Thanks for the reply! (Sorry it took me so long, I was depending on a notification that I missed)

Using the latest build as of Jan 2025 - 1.96.3

It builds without errors, the only errors I get are in the intellisense, I don’t see them as errors in the console below the code. So, I get squiggly underlines in the displayed code, but if I do a build from the run or build command, it succeeds with no errors.

4

Oddly enough, I can include Modules/ModuleManager.h, just not CoreMinimal.h, even though CoreMinimal.h is in the same directory as Modules.

image

My include path in c_cpp_properties.json is here:

"configurations": [
    {
        "name": "Unscramble1Editor Editor Win64 Development (Unscramble1)",
        "compilerPath": "c:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Community\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.39.33519\\bin\\Hostx64\\x64\\cl.exe",
        "cStandard": "c17",
        "cppStandard": "c++20",
        "intelliSenseMode": "msvc-x64",
        "compileCommands": "C:\\Source\\Unreal\\Unscramble1\\.vscode\\compileCommands_Unscramble1.json",
        "includePath": [
            "${workspaceFolder}\\Intermediate\\**",
            "${workspaceFolder}\\Plugins\\**",
            "${workspaceFolder}\\Source\\**",
            "C:\\Program Files\\Epic Games\\UE_5.4\\Engine\\Source\\Runtime\\Core\\Public\\**",
            "${default}"
        ],
        "defines": [
            "UNICODE",
            "_UNICODE",
            "__UNREAL__",
            "UBT_COMPILED_PLATFORM=Windows",
            "WITH_ENGINE=1",
            "WITH_UNREAL_DEVELOPER_TOOLS=1",
            "WITH_APPLICATION_CORE=1",
            "WITH_COREUOBJECT=1"
        ]
    },
    ...

]

5

Solution found:
I followed the advice in this article here: VS Code C++ Intellisense in UE 5.3 not recognizing certain parts of code - #12 by goosinator - Ask - GameDev.tv

Basically, I shut down VSCode, deleted the following folders, and reinstalled.
C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Code
C:\Users\me.vscode
I did have to re-create my VSCode project from UE since something config wise was lost.
Luckily I had everything backed up on a git branch, so I could re-create then copy my code over.

Also, my previous post said that it looked like CoreMinimal.h was a problem, but ModuleManager.h was not, but when I reversed the order of the includes, then ModuleManager showed up as a problem and CoreMinimal did not, so I think intellisense was just stopping at the first error.

Another factor was that I had both clangd and the C++ extension fighting over intellisense, I disabled clangd for this workspace.