VS Code extension and CLI ship separate claude binaries, both write to ~/.claude/

Problem

The VS Code extension bundles its own claude.exe binary (resources/native-binary/claude.exe), separate from the CLI binary installed via npm/installer (~/.local/bin/claude). Both binaries read and write to the shared ~/.claude/ directory (sessions, settings, memory, MCP configs).

On my Windows machine:

• CLI: ~/.local/bin/claude — 242MB, dated April 10
• Extension: ~/.vscode/extensions/anthropic.claude-code-2.1.112-win32-x64/resources/native-binary/claude.exe — 245MB, dated April 17

Consequences

1. Version drift — the two binaries update independently and can be on different versions at the same time
2. Session compatibility — sessions created by one binary may not be fully compatible with the other (different format assumptions)
3. --resume across entry points — resuming a session created by the extension via CLI (or vice versa) may break silently
4. Settings/hooks behavior — same config files may be interpreted differently by different versions
5. Disk waste — two ~240MB binaries doing the same thing

Expected behavior

Either:

• Extension reuses the installed CLI binary (with version check)
• Or both are guaranteed to stay in sync
• Or at minimum, a warning when versions differ

Environment

• OS: Windows 10 Enterprise
• CLI version: installed via npm
• Extension version: 2.1.112