Frequently asked questions

March 9, 2026 · View on GitHub

How can I get help?

Check the CMake Tools issue tracker and What's New to see if your issue is already known/solved before submitting a question or bug report. Feel free to Open a Github issue if your problem hasn't been reported.

Please visit the end-user support chat. This is a community chat. Microsoft does not actively monitor it.

If you're having issues with CMake itself, view the Kitware CMake Forum or Kitware CMake issues

How can I detect when CMake is run from VS Code?

CMake Tools automatically sets the VSCODE_CMAKE_TOOLS environment variable to 1 for all subprocesses that it spawns, including configure, build, and test commands. You can check for this variable in your CMakeLists.txt to detect if the current CMake invocation is being run from the CMake Tools extension:

if(DEFINED ENV{VSCODE_CMAKE_TOOLS})
    message(STATUS "CMake is being run from VS Code CMake Tools extension")
endif()

Note: To see message() output from your CMakeLists.txt in the CMake Tools output channel, set cmake.loggingLevel to "debug" in your VS Code settings.

How do I learn about CMake?

CMake Tools is not the same as CMake. There are many great resources around to learn how to use CMake.

Jason Turner's C++ Weekly - Intro to CMake is a good introduction.
CMake's documentation
CMake's "Mastering CMake" book
"Professional CMake"- a $30 book by Craig Scott (one of the maintainers of CMake).

How do I perform common tasks

See the How To.