ESP8266_Stage Builder Error

Hi there, I am attempting to use the espressif8266_stage linked to the GitHub - esp8266/Arduino: ESP8266 core for Arduino repository that has been recently implemented.

I have followed the documentation and installed the platform as suggested. After setting the platform in the config file and proceeding to build I get the following error:

TypeError: Tried to lookup Dir 'C:\Users\x\.platformio\platforms\espressif8266_stage\builder' as a File.:
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\platformio\builder\main.py", line 147:
env.SConscript("$BUILD_SCRIPT")
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Script\SConscript.py", line 541:
return _SConscript(self.fs, *files, **subst_kw)
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Script\SConscript.py", line 250:
exec _file_ in call_stack[-1].globals
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\platforms\espressif8266_stage\builder\main.py", line 352:
target_elf = env.BuildProgram()
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Environment.py", line 224:
return self.method(*nargs, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\platformio\builder\tools\platformio.py", line 54:
env.ProcessFlags(env.get("BUILD_FLAGS"))
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Environment.py", line 224:
return self.method(*nargs, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\platformio\builder\tools\platformio.py", line 112:
parsed_flags = env.ParseFlags(str(flags))
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Environment.py", line 800:
do_parse(arg)
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Environment.py", line 730:
dict['LIBS'].append(self.fs.File(arg))
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Node\FS.py", line 1404:
return self._lookup(name, directory, File, create)
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Node\FS.py", line 1383:
return root._lookup_abs(p, fsclass, create)
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Node\FS.py", line 2403:
result.must_be_same(klass)
File "C:\Users\x\.platformio\packages\tool-scons\script\..\engine\SCons\Node\FS.py", line 652:
(self.__class__.__name__, self.get_internal_path(), klass.__name__))

Building using the non staging version works perfectly fine.

Spec:
Windows 10
Visual Studio Code
PIO Core: 3.5.0a4

Regards, Aaron

UPDATE:

Appears it may be a Visual Studio Code problem.

The espressif8266_stage works perfectly inside Atom and has the latest git from the esp8266/arduino repository.

Core 3.5.0a4
IDE 2.0.0-beta.8

What is your VSCode version?