CMake Preset & Build Configurator for VS Code

A modern, fast, and visual CMake Configurator & Build Panel for VS Code. Automatically scans your workspace for CMake projects, parses CMakePresets.json, and provides an intuitive GUI with dropdown preset selectors, interactive cache variable toggles, and a live embedded terminal.

✨ Why CMake Preset & Build Configurator?

Working with CMake on complex projects often requires remembering long CLI flags, navigating nested build folders, or manually editing CMakeCache.txt.

This extension brings a clean, modern GUI right to your VS Code Activity Bar:

• 🏷️ Select Presets via Dropdowns: Switch between Debug, Release, Ninja, Makefiles, MSVC, or custom presets with a single click.
• 🎯 Target Picker: Choose to build all, clean, or specific executables and libraries discovered automatically.
• ⚙️ GUI Cache Configurator: Toggle boolean flags with switches, edit paths, and add -D definitions without typing commands.
• 🖥️ Dual Terminal Output: Watch builds live in the plugin panel with ANSI colors, or switch to VS Code's native bottom terminal with one toggle.
• 🔄 Live Workspace Sync: Automatically refreshes whenever you edit CMakeLists.txt or CMakePresets.json.

🚀 Key Features

1. 🔍 Automatic Workspace Scanner

• Recursively searches for all CMakeLists.txt, CMakePresets.json, and CMakeUserPresets.json files across your workspace.
• Detects executables and library targets (add_executable, add_library) and populates target dropdowns automatically.
• Supports mono-repos and multi-project workspaces with a quick project switcher.
• Automatically excludes build/, out/, node_modules/, and .git/ directories for optimal performance.

2. 🏷️ Dropdown Preset & Target Selectors

• Configure Preset Selector: Displays configure presets with badges, descriptions, and resolved macro expansions (${sourceDir}, ${presetName}, ${generator}).
• Build Preset Selector: Intelligently filters build presets associated with your active configure preset.
• Target Selector: Pick all, clean, or any individual build target.
• Custom Mode Fallback: For projects without presets, allows selecting build type (Debug, Release, etc.) and generator (Ninja, Unix Makefiles, etc.), with a 1-click button to scaffold a starter CMakePresets.json.

3. ⚙️ Interactive GUI CMake Configurator (Cache Manager)

• Reads configuration variables from active presets and CMakeCache.txt.
• Interactive Controls:
  • Boolean variables (BOOL) render as instant interactive toggle switches (ON / OFF).
  • Path and string variables render with editable text inputs.
• Filter & Search: Quick search bar with filter pills (All, Booleans, Paths, Strings, Show Advanced).
• Add / Override Variables: Easily add -D<VAR>:<TYPE>=<VALUE> definitions from the GUI.

4. ⚡ One-Click Action Buttons

• ⚡ Configure: Runs CMake configuration with selected preset or custom definitions.
• 🔨 Build: Compiles selected target or entire project (supports parallel compilation).
• 🧹 Clean: Invokes clean build targets.
• 🧪 Test: Runs CTest test suite with preset support.
• ⏹️ Cancel: Safely terminates running processes at any time.

5. 🖥️ Dual Terminal Integration

• Embedded Plugin Terminal:
  • Live streaming build output directly below the Action buttons.
  • Full ANSI color highlights (green for success, red for errors, yellow for warnings, cyan for commands).
  • Status indicator dot (animated blue when running, green on success, red on failure).
  • Live execution timer (e.g. (1.4s)) and exit code reporting.
  • Toolbar with Clear, Copy to Clipboard, and VS Code Terminal popout.
• VS Code Built-in Terminal Mode:
  • Select "Execute in: 🖥️ VS Code Terminal" to run commands directly inside VS Code's native bottom terminal panel.

6. 📊 Status Bar Integration

• Status bar items display the active configure preset $(gear) CMake: [preset] and active target $(target) [target].
• Clicking either item opens a quick-pick switcher.

🏁 Quick Start

1. Install CMake Preset & Build Configurator from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. Open any folder or workspace containing a CMakeLists.txt or CMakePresets.json.
3. Click the CMake icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar).
4. Select your Configure Preset and Build Target from the dropdowns.
5. Click ⚡ Configure and 🔨 Build!

💡 No Presets Yet? Click the "Scaffold CMakePresets.json" button inside the panel to generate a standard, multi-platform CMakePresets.json (v6) file instantly!

⚙️ Extension Settings

🛠️ Available Commands

Access these commands via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P):

📦 Building from Source

To build and package the extension locally:

# 1. Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/sgmistry/CmakeConfigurator.git
cd CmakeConfigurator

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Compile and bundle
npm run compile
npm run bundle

# 4. Run tests
node test/runTests.cjs

# 5. Package into .vsix
npx @vscode/vsce package --no-git-tag-version --allow-missing-repository

📄 License

This extension is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.

⚖️ Trademarks & Disclaimers

• CMake is a registered trademark of Kitware, Inc.. This extension is an independent community project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Kitware, Inc.
• Visual Studio Code and VS Code are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
• All other trademarks and logos are property of their respective owners.