Gemini CLI not able to detect that the companion extension is installed in VS-code

[joneba-google]

What happened?

When loading up gemini cli in vs-code, it opens in terminal, says the "tips for getting started", then:

> Do you want to connect VS Code to Gemini CLI?
 │ If you select Yes, the CLI will have access to your open files and display diffs directly in VS Code.
 │
 │ ● 1. Yes
 │   2. No (esc)
 │   3. No, don't ask again

After accepting, it attempts to run /ide install. This is met with the error:
ℹ Installing IDE companion... ✕ Failed to install VS Code companion extension. Please try installing 'Gemini CLI Companion' manually from the VS Code extension marketplace.
I have tried to combat this is many ways. When I first installed gemini-cli, the companion extension was already installed on vc-code, and when I ran it using npx @google/gemini-cli, this happened. I then tried uninstalling and reinstalling the companion extension and the error continued, I also tried allowing gemini to install the companion but the same error occured.

Next, I tried asking gemini what could be causing the issue and ran code --list-extensions in powershell, and google.gemini-cli-vscode-ide-companion was in the list of installed extensions. It should be noted that my vscode version is 1.109.2.

I tried uninstalling everything including node.js and this time used npm install -g @google/gemini-cli which told me it installed a bunch of stuff and then did not open gemini, so I then opened gemini using the companion extension by doing ctrl+shift+p and running Gemini CLI: Run, and it opened and then exact same error occured. (this is crazy cause I opened gemini through the companion extension but it still can't recognise it's installed - as I understand it, the companion gives access to this command)

What did you expect to happen?

I expected the /ide install command to not throw an error when it is already installed.

Client information

Client Information

Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.

> /about
│ About Gemini CLI                                                                                                                                                                                                   │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                    │
│ CLI Version                                                               0.28.2                                                                                                                                   │
│ Git Commit                                                                da5e47ae3                                                                                                                                │
│ Model                                                                     auto-gemini-2.5                                                                                                                          │
│ Sandbox                                                                   no sandbox                                                                                                                               │
│ OS                                                                        win32                                                                                                                                    │
│ Auth Method                                                               Logged in with Google (jaredlallan@gmail.com)                                                                                            │

Login information

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Anything else we need to know?

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