GacUI/.github/KnowledgeBase/manual/coding-agent/installing/windows.md

Installing Required Tools on Windows

The Windows agent scripts build with MSBuild through Visual Studio's developer environment, and the agent debugs directly with CDB. Install Visual Studio with the C++ desktop workload, a Windows SDK, and the Windows debugging tools that provide cdb.exe. If CDB is not available, install the Windows Driver Kit or the Windows debugging tools component from the Visual Studio Installer.

Define these environment variables before asking the agent to build or debug:

• VLPP_VSDEVCMD_PATH: absolute path to VsDevCmd.bat, for example C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat.
• CDBPATH: absolute path to cdb.exe, for example C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe.

After copying the Release .github folder, the agent should use these scripts instead of calling build or execution tools directly:

• .github\Scripts\copilotBuild.ps1: builds the solution found from Project.md context and writes Build.log.
• .github\Scripts\copilotExecute.ps1: runs unit-test or CLI projects and writes Execute.log for unit tests.

Run CDB directly in an interactive terminal when debugging.

If the application uses the tools shipped by Release, build them from the Release repository:

• Open Tools\Executables\Executables.sln in Visual Studio.
• Build Release with x64.
• Run Tools\CopyExecutables.ps1.
• Confirm CodePack.exe, CppMerge.exe, GacGen.exe, and GlrParserGen.exe exist in Release\Tools.

For debugger readability, copy Import\vlpp.natvis from Release to Visual Studio's visualizers folder. Load the natvis file in CDB for debugger commands such as dx.