NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS Environment variable not working

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

After starting Claude Code and while trying to use it I ran into an error and cannot use it
"Unable to connect to API: Self-signed certificate detected. Check your proxy or corporate SSL certificates"

What Should Happen?

I should be able to start and use Claude Code normally

Error Messages/Logs

"Unable to connect to API: Self-signed certificate detected. Check your proxy or corporate SSL certificates"

Steps to Reproduce

Since I am running it behind a custom VPN which ships a custom self signed ROOT CA Certificate, trying to solve it I implemented the steps described in the official documentation:
https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings#configuration-scopes
https://code.claude.com/docs/en/network-config#custom-ca-certificates

and added the following configuration to the ~/.claude/settings.json file:

"env": {
"NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS": "C:/Users/UserName/Desktop/CUSTOM_SYSTEM_CONFIGS/CUSTOM_CERTS/SOMENetworks-ROOT-CA-CERT.cer"
}

Then restarted bash and tried to use claude, only to face the same error. After bypassing SSL security I managed to use a Clause session and tried to debug the error, then I got the following insights:

<img width="1890" height="998" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a894f87c-dd54-493c-b9a3-72cf70ba672e" />

Which suggests that this is an issue that must be corrected in the Claude Code product.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.47

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

_No response_