ide-switcher

Instantly switch your default IDE for all file extensions. Stop opening .md in the old IDE while .ts opens in the one before that.

Install

Via bunx (recommended — no install required):

bunx ide-switcher

Via Homebrew (macOS / Linux):

brew tap jelias/tap
brew install ide-switcher

Note: To completely uninstall including preferences, run ide-switcher --reset before brew uninstall ide-switcher.

Via npm:

npm install -g ide-switcher

Usage

ide-switcher

Interactive flow — detects installed IDEs, lets you pick one, select file extensions, and applies changes.

ide-switcher cursor           # Skip IDE selection
ide-switcher --list           # See detected IDEs
ide-switcher --dry-run        # Preview without applying
ide-switcher --reset          # Clear saved preferences
ide-switcher --help           # Full usage

How it works

macOS: Uses duti to set file associations via bundle IDs. Installed automatically via Homebrew if missing.

Linux: Uses xdg-mime (part of xdg-utils) to set MIME type defaults via .desktop files.

Supported IDEs

Auto-detected: Cursor, VS Code, Zed, Windsurf, WebStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, GoLand, RubyMine, Rider, CLion, Sublime Text, Nova, BBEdit, Xcode, Fleet, Emacs

Terminal editors (sets $EDITOR / $VISUAL instead): Neovim, Vim, Helix, Nano

Saved preferences

After your first run, preferences are saved to ~/.ide-switcher.json. Your extension selection is pre-checked on subsequent runs. Delete with ide-switcher --reset.

You can also add custom IDEs to the config manually:

{
  "preferredExtensions": [".ts", ".tsx", ".md", ".json"],
  "customIDEs": [
    {
      "name": "My Custom Editor",
      "bundleId": "com.example.editor",
      "cliPath": "/usr/local/bin/myeditor"
    }
  ]
}

Requirements

• macOS or Linux
• Bun (for bunx usage)
• duti on macOS (auto-installed)
• xdg-utils on Linux (sudo apt install xdg-utils)

License

MIT