use a different .zshrc for vscode internal terminal - json

Question

I'm using zsh from vscode integrated terminal
i also use hyper terminal, warp and iterm2 for other purposes but i like to use the integreated terminal while in vscode. i actually enjoy my heavy .zshrc config on external terminals, but i often get the popup "your shell environment is taking too long to load" from vscode. Tbh, i don't mind the popup itself, but i think that a lot of the features that are useful outside vscode are not needed inside.
How can i set a different .zshrc to load only to be used by the vscode integreated terminal ?
tried conditional loading from my .zshrc but don't like it
tried setting it in the vscode-settings.json
this self-answer confused me more
this i think points in the right direction but i am not sure how to use task.json
my env:
macOS 13.1 22C65 arm64
Apple M1 Max
vscode (1.74.11ad8d514439d5077d2b0b7ee64d2ce82a9308e5a for arm64)
zsh 5.9 (arm-apple-darwin22.1.0)

Answer 1

These are the settings to change in “settings.json”:
I created 3 profiles:
zsh-minimal with the vscode minimal config -> new ZDOTDIR
zsh-full with my usual heavy config -> probably not necessary since it is $HOME by default i think
bash, just in case i fu everything
set to null old profiles ( zsh and zsh(2)) to delete them from profiles selection dropdown menu, as per official documentation.
“terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.osx”: “zsh-minimal”,
“terminal.integrated.profiles.osx”: {
"zsh-minimal": {
"title": "zsh-minimal",
"path": "/opt/homebrew/bin//zsh",
"icon": "terminal",
"color": "terminal.ansiMagenta",
"args": [
"-l",
"-i"
],
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"env": {
"ZDOTDIR": "/Users/MYUSERNAME/.homesick/repos/MYUSERNAME-dotfiles/home/vscode_zsh"
},
},
"zsh-full": {
"title": "zsh-full",
"path": "/opt/homebrew/bin//zsh",
"icon": "terminal",
"color": "terminal.ansiCyan",
"args": [
"-l",
"-i"
],
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"env": {
"ZDOTDIR": "/Users/MYUSERNAME/"
},
},
"bash": {
"title": "bash",
"path": "/bin/bash",
"icon": "terminal",
"color": "terminal.ansiWhite",
"args": [
"-l",
"-i"
],
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
},
"zsh": null,
"zsh (2)": null,
}