compileDotNet task fails on macOS: dotnet not on PATH when IDE launched from Finder – Support | JetBrains

Symptoms

Building a Rider plugin project in IntelliJ IDEA on macOS fails during the Gradle build with:

Execution failed for task ':compileDotNet' (registered in build file 'build.gradle.kts').
> Process 'command 'dotnet'' finished with non-zero exit value 1

Exec failed, error: 2 (No such file or directory)

This happens when IntelliJ IDEA is launched from Finder or the Dock.

Environment

Customer type: Personal and commercial customers
Region affected: All regions
Product affected: IntelliJ IDEA (Rider plugin development) on macOS

Cause

macOS apps launched from Finder or the Dock don't inherit the shell PATH. IntelliJ IDEA can't find the dotnet executable even when the .NET SDK is installed and visible in the terminal.

Resolution

Launch IntelliJ IDEA from the terminal so it inherits the full shell environment:

/Applications/IntelliJ\ IDEA.app/Contents/MacOS/idea

Run the Gradle build again. The :compileDotNet task should complete.

Additional Relevant Phrases

compileDotNet failed macOS, dotnet not found IntelliJ IDEA, Rider plugin build error macOS, dotnet command not found Gradle, non-zero exit value 1 dotnet, IntelliJ IDEA PATH macOS terminal