When you open a folder, the extension will recursively search for potential include paths that match the header files your code is using based on the paths set by the 'browse.path' setting in c_cpp_properties.json. The first thing to try is to leverage the light bulb path suggestions to auto-resolve the include paths. Use the light bulb suggestions to auto-resolve includePath Look for the section where your current configuration is defined (by default there's one configuration per operating system, such as 'Win32 or 'Mac'), and set the 'compileCommands' property in c_cpp_properties.json to the full path to your compile_commands.json file and the extension will use that instead of the 'includes' and 'defines' properties for IntelliSense. The extension can get the information for 'includePath' and 'defines' from a compile_commands.json file, which can be auto-generated by many build systems such as CMake and Ninja. Use compile_commands.json file to supply includePaths and defines information

You can specify the remaining paths using one of the techniques described below.

You can hover over the green squiggles or open the Problems window to understand which headers the IntelliSense engine is unable to open - sometimes it's the dependent headers that can't be located. When a folder is opened, the extension attempts to locate your system headers based on your operating system, but it does not know about any other libraries that your project depends on. The quickest way to locate a light bulb is to scroll to the top of the source file and click on any green squiggle that shows up under a #include statement. You can create or open this file by either using the 'C/Cpp: Edit Configurations' command in the command palette or by selecting 'Edit 'includePath' setting' in the light bulb menu (see the screenshot below).

The include paths are defined in the 'includePath' setting in a file called c_cpp_properties.json located in the. If you're seeing the following message when opening a folder in Visual Studio Code, it means the C++ IntelliSense engine needs additional information about the paths in which your include files are located. From the official documentation of the C/C++ extension: Configuring includePath for better IntelliSense results

Setup visual studio code c++