vs-build-tools

name	vs-build-tools
description	Preferred local Visual Studio 2022 Community installation and build tool discovery rules for this Windows machine. Use when Codex needs to compile C/C++ projects, invoke MSBuild, locate MSVC CL.exe, set up the Visual Studio developer environment, or diagnose build commands that depend on Microsoft Visual Studio compiler tools.

VS Build Tools

Prefer the Visual Studio 2022 Community installation under D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community when a task needs Microsoft build tools on this machine. Treat this directory as the preferred VS root, not as a guarantee that every nested version-specific executable path is permanent.

Preferred VS Root

Use this root first:

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community

If an instruction or note contains :\Microsoft Visual Studio\..., treat it as missing the D: drive prefix unless the user says otherwise.

Preferred Tool Paths

• MSBuild: D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe
• Developer environment: D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat
• VC environment shortcut: D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat

CL.exe Discovery

Do not treat the MSVC version folder as fixed. The currently known compiler path is:

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.38.33130\bin\HostX86\x64\CL.exe

Use that path only as a current known location or for diagnostics. For new build commands, prefer initializing the Visual Studio environment and calling cl.

When a specific CL.exe path is required, discover the newest installed MSVC version under:

D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC

PowerShell discovery example:

$msvcRoot = 'D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC'
$cl = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $msvcRoot -Directory |
    Sort-Object Name -Descending |
    ForEach-Object { Join-Path $_.FullName 'bin\HostX86\x64\CL.exe' } |
    Where-Object { Test-Path -LiteralPath $_ } |
    Select-Object -First 1

Usage

Prefer full quoted paths because the Visual Studio install directory contains spaces.

PowerShell example for MSBuild:

& 'D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe' .\Project.sln /m /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=x64

For direct CL.exe usage, initialize the Visual Studio environment first so INCLUDE, LIB, LIBPATH, Windows SDK paths, and MSVC tool paths are available.

PowerShell example:

cmd /c '"D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat" && cl /?'

Use the explicit CL.exe path only when a task specifically needs to locate the binary. For real compilation commands, prefer calling cl after vcvars64.bat or VsDevCmd.bat has been loaded.

Validation

Before relying on these paths in a build fix, check that the preferred VS root and needed tool files still exist with Test-Path -LiteralPath '<path>'. If a nested tool path is missing, search under D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community before assuming Visual Studio is unavailable.