[FEATURE] Ship Claude Code as a standalone binary (ideally Rust)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Claude Code currently requires Node.js/npm installation, which creates unnecessary friction:

1. Heavy dependency chain - npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code pulls hundreds of MB of node_modules
2. Runtime dependency - Users must install and maintain Node.js just for a CLI tool
3. WSL friction on Windows - To run Claude Code on Windows, users need WSL + Ubuntu/Alpine + Node.js, adding layers of complexity

Proposed Solution

Ship Claude Code as a standalone binary (ideally Rust):

# Ideal installation
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | sh
# Downloads single ~10MB binary to ~/.local/bin/claude

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

I'm setting up Claude Code on a Windows 11 VM (Proxmox) for native Windows development (windows-rs, COM automation). Current path:

Windows 11 VM → WSL2 → Ubuntu (400MB) → Node.js → Claude Code

Ideal path:
Windows 11 VM → claude.exe

The current setup works, but the Node.js dependency feels like unnecessary bloat for a CLI tool that could be a single binary.

Additional Context

Benefits

• Zero runtime dependencies - Single static binary, works anywhere
• Smaller footprint - ~10MB vs 200MB+ node_modules
• Faster startup - No Node.js initialization overhead
• Simpler Windows support - Native .exe, no WSL required
• Aligns with Anthropic's Rust usage - You already use Rust internally