`cl.exe` Plugin Dependency On Windows

[mattcargile]

Before Reporting an Issue

• I have read the kickstart.nvim README.md.

• I have read the appropriate plugin's documentation.

• I have searched that this issue has not been reported before.

• I have ran :checkhealth and so no obvious issue.

• By checking this, I confirm that the above steps are completed. I understand leaving this unchecked will result in this report being closed immediately.

Describe the bug

cl.exe is required for one of plugins. I could see adding the dependencies below to the README.md.

To Reproduce

1. Be on windows
2. git clone
3. Open nvim
4. Run through the vim.pack install
5. Notice errors with cl.exe missing.

Workaround Using pwsh.exe

1. choco install visualstudio2026buildtools -y
2. choco install visualstudio2026-workload-vctools -y
3. & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\BuildTools\Common7\Tools\Launch-VsDevShell.ps1'

Some notes on the above. Need to be running with admin to perform the install. I am on 7.6.2 of PowerShell. Item 3 is needed to fix-up the $env:Path so processes can find cl.exe. On my system, when I run Get-Command cl after running the launcher ps1, I get C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.51.36231\bin\HostX86\x86\cl.exe. Presumably, one could update the $env:Path manually too, though there are four different copies of cl.exe.

Desktop

• OS: Windows
• Terminal: Wezterm

Neovim Version

NVIM v0.12.3
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.1774638290