VS Code cannot recognize the SDK and toolchain

[joey]

HI

I'm having an issue where VS Code cannot recognize the SDK and toolchain. Everything was working fine before, but now errors occur when I open VS Code and try to build the project directly, as shown in the picture. How can I fix this?

I have already tried the following:

1. Reinstalled the SDK and toolchain.
2. Uninstalled the Nordic extensions from the hidden folder in the root directory of the C drive.
3. nrfutil cannot recognize the SDK version.
4. Set the ZEPHYR_BASE environment variable.

But the problem still persists.

Thanks!

[Turbo J]

Try downgrading the nrf connect extension to 2026.1.1327 version.

Note that ZEPYHR_BASE sounds like a terrible idea when using vs code plugin - it should be handled internally AFAIK and point to the selected NCS SDK for a project when compiling/running tools.

[joey]

I have manually added the following paths to the system environment variables:

• D:\ncs\toolchain\toolchains\66cdf9b75e\opt\bin
• D:\ncs\toolchain\toolchains\66cdf9b75e\opt\zephyr-sdk\arm-zephyr-eabi\bin
• ZEPHYR_BASE = D:\ncs\toolchain\v3.2.1\zephyr

Now the build can pass successfully.
But how can I verify that the compiled output is correct and valid?
And how can I make this configuration automatic instead of manual?
I have already downgraded the extension to 2026.1.1327 , but it still doesn’t work.

After manually adding the environment variables, the compilation passed, but I got these warnings. I didn’t pay attention to them before. Are these warnings related to the environment variables I set?

Warning: UPDATEABLE_IMAGE_NUMBER (defined at D:/ncs/toolchain/v3.2.1/nrf/modules/../samples/common/mcumgr_bt_ota_dfu/Kconfig:87, subsys/dfu/Kconfig:96) was assigned the value '1' but got the value ''. Check these unsatisfied dependencies: (((BOARD_THINGY53_NRF5340_CPUAPP || BOARD_THINGY53_NRF5340_CPUAPP_NS) && SOC_SERIES_NRF53X && NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU) || (!MCUBOOT && IMG_MANAGER)) (=n). See http://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/kconfig.html#CONFIG_UPDATEABLE_IMAGE_NUMBER and/or look up UPDATEABLE_IMAGE_NUMBER in the menuconfig/guiconfig interface. The Application Development Primer, Setting Configuration Values, and Kconfig - Tips and Best Practices sections of the manual might be helpful too.

Warning: MCUBOOT_UPDATE_FOOTER_SIZE (defined at subsys/dfu/Kconfig:55) was assigned the value '0x50' but got the value ''. Check these unsatisfied dependencies: MCUBOOT_IMG_MANAGER (=n), IMG_MANAGER (=n). See http://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/kconfig.html#CONFIG_MCUBOOT_UPDATE_FOOTER_SIZE and/or look up MCUBOOT_UPDATE_FOOTER_SIZE in the menuconfig/guiconfig interface. The Application Development Primer, Setting Configuration Values, and Kconfig - Tips and Best Practices sections of the manual might be helpful too.