Voice mode on Windows: native audio-capture binary missing from npm package
Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Mar 11, 2026 by SpitOnYourFace Closed Apr 11, 2026
Description
/voice command fails on Windows with:
Voice recording requires the native audio module, which could not be loaded.
Root Cause
The native audio binary is not included in the npm-distributed package. The code at runtime looks for:
<claude-code>/audio-capture/x64-win32/audio-capture.node
But the audio-capture/ directory does not exist at all in the npm installation.
The relevant code path (Rl() function in cli.js) tries:
process.env.AUDIO_CAPTURE_NODE_PATH(not set)- Falls back to
path.join(dirname, '..', 'audio-capture', '<arch>-<platform>', 'audio-capture.node') - Returns
null→isNativeAudioAvailable()returnsfalse - On
win32there's no SoX/arecord fallback, so voice fails entirely
Environment
- Claude Code version: 2.1.72 (installed via
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code) - OS: Windows 10 (MSYS2/Git Bash)
- Architecture: x64
- Node.js: via nvm-windows
Expected Behavior
Voice mode should work on Windows, either by:
- Bundling
audio-capture/x64-win32/audio-capture.nodein the npm package - Or providing a SoX-based fallback on Windows (like Linux/macOS have)
Steps to Reproduce
- Install Claude Code via npm on Windows:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code - Run
claude - Type
/voice - See error: "Voice recording requires the native audio module, which could not be loaded."
Additional Context
- On macOS/Linux, a SoX (
rec) orarecordfallback exists, but onwin32the code returnsfalseimmediately with no fallback - The
@anthropic-ai/claude-code-nativepackage is not published to npm either (404)
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