Voice command fails on Windows CLI: native audio module not bundled

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 12, 2026 by fortis22e Closed Mar 15, 2026

Description

The /voice command fails on Windows when using the npm-installed CLI (@anthropic-ai/claude-code) with the error:

Voice recording requires the native audio module, which could not be loaded.

Root Cause

The CLI expects a native binary at audio-capture/x64-win32/audio-capture.node inside the package directory, but this file is not included in the npm package. The audio-capture/ directory does not exist at all.

Additionally, unlike macOS/Linux which fall back to sox/arecord, the Windows code path has no fallback — it only supports the native module.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Install Claude Code via npm on Windows: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
  2. Run claude
  3. Use the /voice command
  4. Error: "Voice recording requires the native audio module, which could not be loaded."

Environment

  • OS: Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26200)
  • Platform: x64-win32
  • Claude Code version: npm CLI installation
  • Shell: bash (Git Bash)

Expected Behavior

Either:

  • Bundle audio-capture.node for x64-win32 in the npm package, or
  • Add a fallback recording method on Windows (e.g., sox), similar to macOS/Linux

Workaround

The AUDIO_CAPTURE_NODE_PATH environment variable can point to the binary if obtained separately, but there is no documented way to acquire it.

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