missing SAM CLI shows confusing "invalid launch config" message

[RaniAgus]

Problem

When trying to debug a lambda function locally, I get this error:

2024-10-21 11:27:00.811 [error] SamLaunchRequestError: Invalid launch configuration: Debug Configurations with an invoke target of "code" require a valid Lambda runtime value, expected one of [python3.7, python3.8, python3.9, dotnet6, java11, java17, java8.al2, go1.x, nodejs20.x, python3.10, java8, python3.11, python3.12, nodejs14.x, nodejs16.x, nodejs18.x] [BadLaunchConfig]

However, it doesn't matter which value do I set for lambda.runtime, it always returns the same error.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Create a launch configuration file with the following values

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "aws-sam",
      "request": "direct-invoke",
      "name": "Invoke Lambda Function",
      "invokeTarget": {
        "target": "code",
        "architecture": "x86_64",
        "projectRoot": "${workspaceFolder}",
        "lambdaHandler": "${fileBasenameNoExtension}.lambdaHandler"
      },
      "lambda": {
        "runtime": "nodejs20.x",
        "payload": {
          "path": "${workspaceFolder}/__tests__/mocks/${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}.json"
        },
        "environmentVariables": {}
      }
    }
  ]
}

2. Execute "Start" button

Expected behavior

It should execute correctly, as nodejs20.x is a valid runtime value.

System details (run AWS: About and/or Amazon Q: About)

• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631)
• Visual Studio Code version: 1.94.2
• AWS Toolkit version: 3.29.0

[RaniAgus]

After some digging I found out that this could be due to not having installed the AWS SAM CLI 🤔
If so, the error message is incorrect.