Giulio Calacoci

Step debugging python in vscode

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 14:31:00 +0100

I’ve struggled a lot in making python debugging work in vscode, so I’m writing this post to help others (and myself in the future).

While trying to step debug Barman, I’ve found that VSCode was not able to find the of the modules I was trying to debug, and, no matter where i was trying to set the PYTHONPATH environment variable to the root of the project or in the vscode settings, the debugger was not able to find the source code.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a principal software engineer based in Florence, Italy. I’ve been writing software for 20 years, 15 of them around PostgreSQL: backup and disaster recovery, the delivery platforms that ship database products, and lately the tooling that lets AI agents use a database safely.

Most of that time I spent at 2ndQuadrant and then at EDB, which acquired it in 2020. I built the continuous delivery platforms at both companies, led the Barman team at EDB, and finished in EDB’s AI team working on MCP connectivity for Postgres, starting from pg-airman-mcp. The resume has the details and the talks page has the recordings.

Resume

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Download the PDF · last updated October 2026

Principal Software Engineer · Tech Lead · Platform Engineering, Software Delivery, PostgreSQL

Florence, Italy · Open to remote (EU / US) · asdmaster@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/gcalacoci · github.com/gcalacoci · gcalacoci.github.io

Summary Link to heading

Principal software engineer with 20 years of experience, 15 of them in the PostgreSQL ecosystem. At EDB I led the Barman team, hiring and mentoring the engineers who now write most of the project, and I created Foundation, the delivery framework that builds and ships every EDB product. My last role was in EDB’s AI team, where I worked on MCP connectivity for AIDB, starting from pg-airman-mcp, an open-source MCP server I took from fork to 1.0. I’m looking for a tech lead or principal role in a team that designs and builds together.

Talks

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A brief collection of my public speaking engagements, both in english and italian.

English Link to heading

Barman, past, present, and future of a pioneer community project Link to heading

Date: Oct 22, 2025
Location: PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2025, Riga (with Martín Marqués)
Description: Barman is one of the first backup and recovery tools for Postgres, released as open source by 2ndQuadrant and adopted widely over the past decade. A look back at 13 years of community development — achievements, hard moments, balancing customer requests with community proposals — and at the road ahead. Slides