Is there API to get the selected Kit - e.g. the getter equivalent to cmake.setKitByName

[Jonah Graham (jonahgraham)]

I have an extension that automates creating a CMake project for my custom work. As part of this I do a executeCommand('cmake.setKitByName', 'mykitname'); But I want to do this only if the kit has not already been set by other methods.

Is there a method/command to get the kit name or a boolean to find out if it is unspecified?

[raven (r4venrudy)]

There is a command for the selected kit name, but there is an important caveat for your “only if it has not already been set” use case:

const kitName = await vscode.commands.executeCommand<string | null>(
    "cmake.buildKit",
    folder // a vscode.WorkspaceFolder; omit to use the active project
);

cmake.buildKit is documented here. For a project with a selected kit, its implementation returns activeKit.name, including the internal __unspec__ name for the “Unspecified” kit: implementation.

It is not a side-effect-free check for an unset kit. The command goes through queryCMakeProject, which first calls ensureActiveConfigurePresetOrKit. In kit mode, when no kit is selected, that can open the kit picker, or select __unspec__ automatically when automatic scanning is disabled / no CMakeLists.txt is found. In preset mode it can prompt for a configure preset. A null result can also mean no project or a cancelled selection, so it should not automatically be treated as permission to replace the kit.

For your extension, I would preserve an existing __unspec__ selection too if your goal is to respect a user choice. If you specifically need to distinguish unset before any prompt from explicitly selected Unspecified, the public Project wrapper currently exposes preset state but no kit getter; that narrower non-interactive getter would need an API addition.

AI-assisted answer; checked against the current source linked above. I have not run this inside your extension host.