PyCharm 2026.2 Help

Attach to DAP

Create: Run | Edit Configurations | Add New Configuration | Attach to DAP

Use the Attach to DAP run/debug configuration to connect PyCharm to an existing Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) server instead of launching your application from the IDE. This is useful when your application is started outside PyCharm or is already running in another environment.

Toolbar

The tree view of run/debug configurations has a toolbar that helps you manage configurations available in your project as well as adjust default configurations templates.

Item

Shortcut

Description

the Add button

Alt+Insert

Create a run/debug configuration.

the Remove button

Alt+Delete

Delete the selected run/debug configuration. Note that you cannot delete default configurations.

Copy

Ctrl+D

Create a copy of the selected run/debug configuration. Note that you create copies of default configurations.

Save configuration

The button is displayed only when you select a temporary configuration. Click this button to save a temporary configuration as permanent.

Move into new folder / Create new folder

Move into new folder / Create new folder. You can group run/debug configurations by placing them into folders.

To create a folder, select the configurations within a category, click Folder, and specify the folder name. If only a category is in focus, an empty folder is created.

Then, to move a configuration into a folder, between the folders or out of a folder, use drag or Move Up and Move Down buttons.

To remove grouping, select a folder and click Remove Configuration.

Sort configurations

Click this button to sort configurations in the alphabetical order.

Common options

Item

Description

Name

Specify a name for the run configuration to quickly identify it among others when editing or running.

Store as project file

Save the file with the run configuration settings to share it with other team members. The default location is .idea/runConfigurations. However, if you do not want to share the .idea directory, you can save the configuration to any other directory within the project.

By default, it is disabled, and PyCharm stores run configuration settings in .idea/workspace.xml.

Attach to DAP-specific configuration options

Item

Description

Remote address

Specify the IP address of the machine by which the remote debug server can be accessible and the port number, which will be automatically substituted to the command line. By default, localhost is used.

Path Mappings

Map local project paths to their corresponding locations on the remote machine.

Use to add a mapping and to remove the selected one.

  • Local Root Path: specify the path to the local project folder. PyCharm automatically fills out this field with the path to the currently opened project.

  • Remote Root Path: Specify the path to the project directory on a remote server.

Additional options

Click Modify options and select the options that you want to add to the dialog.

Operating System

Item

Description

Allow multiple instances

Allow running multiple instances of this run configuration in parallel.

By default, it is disabled, and when you start this configuration while another instance is still running, PyCharm suggests stopping the running instance and starting another one. This is helpful when a run configuration consumes a lot of resources and there is no good reason to run multiple instances.

Debug

Item

Description

Debug just my code

When this option is enabled, the debugger focuses only on user-written code and skips stepping into external libraries.

Before launch

Item

Description

Open run/debug tool window when started

By default this option is selected and the Run or the Debug tool window opens when you start the run/debug configuration.

Otherwise, the tool window is hidden. However, when the configuration is running, you can open the corresponding tool window for it yourself by pressing Alt+4 or Alt+5.

Focus run/debug tool window when started

Select this option to automatically move focus to the Run or the Debug tool window when you start the run/debug configuration.

Show the run/debug configuration settings before start

Select this option to show the run/debug configuration settings prior to actually starting the run/debug configuration.

Add before launch task

Select this option to add one of the following available tasks:

  • Launch Web Browser: select this option to have a browser started. In the dialog that opens, select the type of the browser and provide the start URL. Also, specify if you want the browser to be launched with the JavaScript debugger.

  • Run External tool: select to run an external application. In the dialog that opens, select one or multiple applications you want to run. If it is not defined in PyCharm yet, add its definition. For more information, refer to External tools and External Tools.

  • Run Another Configuration: select to execute another run/debug configuration and wait until it finishes before starting the current configuration. If you want to run several configurations in parallel, use a compound run/debug configuration.

  • Run File Watchers: select this option to have PyCharm apply all the currently active File Watchers.

  • Run Remote External Tool: adds a remote SSH external tool.

  • Run Grunt task: select this option to run a Grunt task.

    In the Grunt task dialog that opens, specify the Gruntfile.js where the required task is defined, select the task to execute, and specify the arguments to pass to the Grunt tool.

    Specify the location of the Node.js runtime, the parameters to pass to it, and the path to the grunt-cli package.

  • Run gulp task: select this option to run a Gulp task.

    In the Gulp task dialog that opens, specify the Gulpfile.js where the required task is defined, select the task to execute, and specify the arguments to pass to the Gulp tool.

    Specify the location of the Node.js runtime, the parameters to pass to it, and the path to the gulp package.

  • Run npm script: select this option to execute an npm script.

    In the NPM Script dialog that opens, specify the npm run/debug configuration settings.

  • Compile TypeScript: select to run the built-in TypeScript compiler and thus make sure that all the changes you made to your TypeScript code are reflected in the generated JavaScript files. In the TypeScript Compile Settings dialog that opens, select or clear the Check errors checkbox to configure the behaviour of the compiler in case any errors are detected:

    • If the Check errors checkbox is selected, the compiler will show all the errors and the run configuration will not start.

    • If the Check errors checkbox is cleared, the compiler will show all the detected errors but the run configuration still will be launched.

  • Disconnect Data Source: select this option if you want to disrupt the connection to a data source before the run/debug configuration is run.

Use cases

Use Attach to DAP to connect PyCharm to a Python application that was started outside the IDE. For example, you can:

  • Debug a long-running service started from the command line or by another tool:

    python -m debugpy --listen 5678 app.py

  • Debug application startup by waiting for the debugger before the first line of code is executed:

    python -m debugpy --listen 5678 --wait-for-client app.py

  • Attach to an already running Python process without restarting it:

    python -m debugpy --listen 5678 --pid <PID>

  • Debug applications running in Docker, WSL, or on a remote machine by exposing a debug port and connecting to it from PyCharm.

  • Debug applications launched by another tool or process, such as a task runner, test framework, or custom launcher, where starting the application directly from PyCharm is not practical.

13 July 2026
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