diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/meson-routines.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/meson-routines.bbclass
index a944a8fff1c..9925465ed8f 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/meson-routines.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/meson-routines.bbclass
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@ def meson_array(var, d):
     items = d.getVar(var).split()
     return repr(items[0] if len(items) == 1 else items)
 
+def meson_array_abspath(var, d):
+    import shutil
+    items = d.getVar(var).split()
+    items[0] = shutil.which(items[0]) or items[0]
+    return repr(items[0] if len(items) == 1 else items)
+
 # Map our ARCH values to what Meson expects:
 # http://mesonbuild.com/Reference-tables.html#cpu-families
 def meson_cpu_family(var, d):
diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/meson.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/meson.bbclass
index 03fa2c06eb4..31675cf42d1 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/meson.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/meson.bbclass
@@ -64,10 +64,13 @@ addtask write_config before do_configure
 do_write_config[vardeps] += "CC CXX AR NM STRIP READELF OBJCOPY CFLAGS CXXFLAGS LDFLAGS RUSTC RUSTFLAGS EXEWRAPPER_ENABLED"
 do_write_config() {
     # This needs to be Py to split the args into single-element lists
+    # The generated compile_commands.json file can be used by external IDEs
+    # which do not know the $PATH set-up by bitbake. They need the absolute
+    # compiler paths.
     cat >${WORKDIR}/meson.cross <<EOF
 [binaries]
-c = ${@meson_array('CC', d)}
-cpp = ${@meson_array('CXX', d)}
+c = ${@meson_array_abspath('CC', d)}
+cpp = ${@meson_array_abspath('CXX', d)}
 cython = 'cython3'
 ar = ${@meson_array('AR', d)}
 nm = ${@meson_array('NM', d)}