both Cursor and VS Code CLIs were found; rerun with --cursor

Error message

both Cursor and VS Code CLIs were found; rerun with --cursor or --code

What it means

Ambiguity guard in `baml ide install`: both a `cursor` and a `code` CLI were found on PATH and neither --cursor nor --code was passed, so the installer cannot know which editor's extensions directory to target. The resolver lists both and requires an explicit disambiguating flag.

Source

Thrown at baml_language/crates/baml_cli/src/ide_command.rs:122

        Ok(ExitCode::Success)
    }

    fn resolve_editor(&self) -> Result<OsString> {
        if self.cursor {
            return command_on_path("cursor")
                .ok_or_else(|| missing_ide_cli_error("Cursor", "cursor", HostOs::CURRENT));
        }
        if self.code {
            return command_on_path("code")
                .ok_or_else(|| missing_ide_cli_error("VS Code", "code", HostOs::CURRENT));
        }

        let cursor = command_on_path("cursor");
        let code = command_on_path("code");
        match (cursor, code) {
            (Some(cursor), None) => Ok(cursor),
            (None, Some(code)) => Ok(code),
            (Some(_), Some(_)) => Err(anyhow!(
                "both Cursor and VS Code CLIs were found; rerun with --cursor or --code"
            )),
            (None, None) => Err(anyhow!(
                r"failed to install the BAML extension automatically: no supported IDE CLI (`code` or `cursor`) was found on PATH.

{help}",
                help = manual_install_help("VS Code or Cursor", HostOs::CURRENT)
            )),
        }
    }
}

/// The IDE is often installed without its CLI shim (on macOS the `code`
/// and `cursor` commands must be added to PATH by hand from inside the
/// IDE), so a bare not-found error dead-ends users who do have the IDE.
/// Explain what we could not do and walk through the manual install
/// instead.
fn missing_ide_cli_error(ide: &str, cli: &str, os: HostOs) -> anyhow::Error {

View on GitHub (pinned to bd85ce9dee)

Solutions

Re-run with an explicit target: `baml ide install --code` or `baml ide install --cursor`

Example fix

// before
$ baml ide install
// after
$ baml ide install --cursor

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# disambiguate before invoking
if command -v code >/dev/null && command -v cursor >/dev/null; then
  baml ide install --code   # or --cursor
else
  baml ide install
fi

Try / catch

if let Err(e) = result {
    if e.to_string().contains("--cursor or --code") {
        // prompt user which editor to target, then retry with the flag
    }
}

Prevention

Always pass --code or --cursor explicitly in scripts
Set a team convention for which editor BAML extension targets

When it happens

Trigger: Running `baml ide install` (without --cursor/--code) on a machine where both `cursor` and `code` are on PATH.

Common situations: Developers with both VS Code and Cursor installed — very common after switching editors.

Understand the failure class

Background: "mutually exclusive" flag errors: what "can't supply both nx and xx", "--raw is not compatible with -i" and "cannot be used with" mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of BoundaryML/baml@bd85ce9dee (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5dfaae60d036f328. Report an issue: GitHub.