Bug description

When using the Quarto VS Code extension, previewing a .qmd document that specifies the native Julia engine still attempts to start a Jupyter Julia kernel instead of using the Quarto Julia engine.

Rendering the same document from the command line works correctly and uses the native Julia engine.

Notes

• The document renders correctly from the command line.
• The issue only occurs when using the VS Code Quarto preview integration.
• The user does not intend to use the Jupyter Julia engine.

Question

Is the VS Code extension intentionally routing preview execution through Jupyter, or is this a bug where engine: julia is ignored in the preview path?

Steps to reproduce

test.qmd:

---
title: "Demo"
engine: julia
---
```{julia}
x = 1.0
@show x
```

Actual behavior

From the terminal:

quarto render test.qmd

Works correctly and uses Julia 1.12.5 via juliaup.

However, when using Quarto Preview in VS Code, the extension runs:

quarto preview test.qmd --no-browser --no-watch-inputs

and the log shows:

Starting julia-1.11 kernel...
ERROR:

[Errno 2] No such file or directory:
'/Users/<user>/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.11.6+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/bin/julia'

This indicates that the preview process is attempting to start a Jupyter/IJulia kernel (julia-1.11) rather than using the native Quarto Julia engine.

Running

quarto call engine julia status

shows:

Julia control server is not running.

which further suggests that the preview path is not using the native Julia engine.

Expected behavior

If the document specifies

engine: julia

the VS Code preview should use the native Quarto Julia engine, consistent with quarto render.

It should not attempt to start a Jupyter Julia kernel.

Your environment

• Quarto: 1.9.33
• Julia: 1.12.5 (installed via juliaup)
• VS Code 1.111.0 with:
  • Quarto extension 1.130.0
  • Julia extension 1.193.1
• macOS (Apple Silicon)