diff --git a/src/core/search-list.test.ts b/src/core/search-list.test.ts
index e0f5d81..c89989c 100644
--- a/src/core/search-list.test.ts
+++ b/src/core/search-list.test.ts
@@ -361,6 +361,44 @@ describe('registerSearchList', () => {
     expect(registered[0][1]).not.toBe(SearchList);
   });
 
+  it('registers on the default export of an inquirer that has no top-level registerPrompt, as cli-utilities 2 ships', () => {
+    const registered: string[] = [];
+    const fakeLoad = (id: string): unknown =>
+      id === 'inquirer' ? { default: { registerPrompt: (name: string) => registered.push(name) } } : SearchList;
+
+    registerSearchList(fakeLoad);
+
+    expect(registered).toEqual(['search-list', 'list', 'checkbox']);
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    ['its package exports hide lib/prompts, as inquirer 12 does', 'ERR_PACKAGE_PATH_NOT_EXPORTED'],
+    ['lib/prompts is missing from the package', 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND'],
+  ])('keeps the built-in list and checkbox when %s', (_reason, code) => {
+    const registered: string[] = [];
+    const fakeLoad = (id: string): unknown => {
+      if (id.startsWith('inquirer/lib/prompts/')) {
+        throw Object.assign(new Error(`Cannot load '${id}'`), { code });
+      }
+      return id === 'inquirer' ? { default: { registerPrompt: (name: string) => registered.push(name) } } : SearchList;
+    };
+
+    expect(() => registerSearchList(fakeLoad)).not.toThrow();
+    expect(registered).toEqual(['search-list']);
+  });
+
+  it('still fails when a list or checkbox prompt cannot load for any reason other than being absent', () => {
+    const broken = new Error('Unexpected token in inquirer/lib/prompts/list');
+    const fakeLoad = (id: string): unknown => {
+      if (id === 'inquirer/lib/prompts/list') {
+        throw broken;
+      }
+      return id === 'inquirer' ? { registerPrompt: () => undefined } : SearchList;
+    };
+
+    expect(() => registerSearchList(fakeLoad)).toThrow(broken);
+  });
+
   it('registers on the real inquirer cli-utilities depends on when no loader is given', () => {
     const inquirer = load('inquirer') as { prompt: { prompts: Record<string, unknown> } };
 
diff --git a/src/core/search-list.ts b/src/core/search-list.ts
index b9b6d93..76070a1 100644
--- a/src/core/search-list.ts
+++ b/src/core/search-list.ts
@@ -153,12 +153,39 @@ export function utilitiesLoader(): ModuleLoader {
   return createRequire(require.resolve('@contentstack/cli-utilities'));
 }
 
+// cli-utilities 1 ships inquirer 8 (registerPrompt on the module, prompts under lib/prompts). csdx 2 forces
+// every plugin onto its own cli-utilities 2, whose inquirer 12 has registerPrompt only on the default export
+// and no lib/prompts, so list and checkbox keep inquirer's own paging there.
+function promptRegistry(inquirer: unknown): PromptRegistry {
+  const module = inquirer as Partial<PromptRegistry> & { default?: PromptRegistry };
+
+  return typeof module.registerPrompt === 'function' ? (module as PromptRegistry) : (module.default as PromptRegistry);
+}
+
+const ABSENT_MODULE_CODES = new Set(['MODULE_NOT_FOUND', 'ERR_PACKAGE_PATH_NOT_EXPORTED']);
+
+function loadIfPresent(load: ModuleLoader, id: string): unknown {
+  try {
+    return load(id);
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (ABSENT_MODULE_CODES.has(String((error as { code?: unknown }).code))) {
+      return undefined;
+    }
+
+    throw error;
+  }
+}
+
 export function registerSearchList(load: ModuleLoader = utilitiesLoader()): void {
-  const inquirer = load('inquirer') as PromptRegistry;
+  const inquirer = promptRegistry(load('inquirer'));
 
   inquirer.registerPrompt('search-list', launchSearchList(load('inquirer-search-list') as SearchListClass));
 
   for (const type of ['list', 'checkbox']) {
-    inquirer.registerPrompt(type, launchPaginated(load(`inquirer/lib/prompts/${type}`) as PaginatedClass));
+    const Prompt = loadIfPresent(load, `inquirer/lib/prompts/${type}`);
+
+    if (Prompt !== undefined) {
+      inquirer.registerPrompt(type, launchPaginated(Prompt as PaginatedClass));
+    }
   }
 }