What causes "No supported IDEs detected — pick the one(s) you plan to use." in thedotmack/claude-mem?

Simply pick your IDE(s) from the manual list shown right after the warning.

No supported IDEs detected — pick the one(s) you plan to use

Error message

No supported IDEs detected — pick the one(s) you plan to use.

What it means

During `npx claude-mem install`, IDE detection returned zero detected targets. The installer warns and still shows the full IDE list (without [detected] tags) so you can manually pick the ones you plan to use. Purely informational — the multiselect that follows is the recovery path.

Source

Thrown at src/npx-cli/commands/install.ts:632

        { value: 'cancel', label: 'Cancel installation' },
      ],
      initialValue: 'install',
    });
    if (p.isCancel(choice) || choice === 'cancel') {
      p.cancel('Installation cancelled.');
      process.exit(0);
    }
    if (choice === 'install') {
      if (await installClaudeCode()) {
        detectedIDEs = detectInstalledIDEs();
      }
    }
  }

  const detected = detectedIDEs.filter((ide) => ide.detected);

  if (detected.length === 0) {
    log.warn('No supported IDEs detected — pick the one(s) you plan to use.');
  }

  const options = detectedIDEs.map((ide) => {
    const detectedTag = ide.detected ? ' [detected]' : '';
    return {
      value: ide.id,
      label: ide.label,
      hint: `${ide.hint}${detectedTag}`,
    };
  });

  const result = await p.multiselect({
    message: 'Which IDEs do you use?',
    options,
    initialValues: [],
    required: true,
  });

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d1df569a)

Solutions

Simply pick your IDE(s) from the manual list shown right after the warning.
If your IDE is actually installed, fix PATH so its binary is discoverable (`which <cli>`), then rerun `npx claude-mem install`.
Install at least one supported IDE first if you want detection-based defaults.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Pre-flight the same detection the installer uses:
for (const cli of ['claude', 'opencode', 'gemini', 'cursor-agent']) {
  console.log(cli, spawnSync('which', [cli]).status === 0);
}

Prevention

Have at least one supported IDE installed before running install if you want detected defaults.
Non-standard install locations: symlink the CLI into a PATH dir so detection finds it.
Know that the manual multiselect is the designed fallback — nothing fails when detection is empty.

When it happens

Trigger: Running the installer in an environment where none of the known IDE config/binary locations exist: fresh machine, remote container, or IDEs installed in non-standard prefixes the detector does not scan.

Common situations: Headless/container setups; IDE installed per-user in a location outside the detection list; running install over SSH on a brand-new box before any IDE is set up.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@e2d1df569a (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f3c7dbf1fc68decd. Report an issue: GitHub.