The provider 'vmware_desktop' could not be found on macos m1

• install both vagrant and vmware via homebrew

brew install --cask vagrant
brew install --cask vmware-fusion

• verify that everything is installed

➜  ~ vmrun -T ws list

Total running VMs: 0
➜  ~ vagrant -v

Vagrant 2.3.0

• set the default provider as vmware_desktop in my .zshrc (and "sourced" it)

export VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=vmware_desktop

• initialize a folder and add a box following official get started

vagrant init hashicorp/bionic64
vagrant box add hashicorp/bionic64

and select the option 3) vmware_desktop

• finally run vagrant up from the initialised folder and observe the error

The provider 'vmware_desktop' could not be found, but was requested to
back the machine 'default'. Please use a provider that exists.

Vagrant knows about the following providers: docker, hyperv, virtualbox

did I make some mistake in the setup

You miss to install the Vagrant VMWare plugin

First you need to install Vagrant VMware Utility

Then you can install the plugin

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vmware-desktop