[BUG] CC native on Windows: not really shell aware

...its not you....its me....

● The issue is with Windows path escaping in JSON. Even with cchooks, the core problem remains: Claude Code v1.0.67 on Windows is not triggering hooks consistently.

Summary

We've now tried:

1. Direct Python commands ❌
2. PowerShell wrappers ❌
3. WSL commands ❌
4. uv run commands ❌
5. Shell scripts with Git Bash ❌
6. cchooks SDK ❌

All approaches work when run manually but fail because Claude Code isn't calling the hooks. This is confirmed by:

• No new entries in debug logs when editing files
• The hooks work perfectly when run manually
• GitHub issue #3417 documenting this exact problem

The issue is not with our hook implementation - it's with Claude Code v1.0.67 not triggering hooks on Windows. Until this bug is fixed by the Claude Code team, manual execution remains the only reliable option.

I've had some luck adding this to C:\Users\[user]\.claude\CLAUDE.md, but it should be in the default knowledge of the windows version.

## File Operations
- Use `mv` instead of `move` (Git Bash doesn't recognize `move`)
- Enclose paths in quotes: `cd "c:\Projects\MyApp"`
- When redirecting to null, use uppercase: `command > NUL` (not `nul`)

## Script Execution
- PowerShell: Use `pwsh.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "script.ps1"`
- PowerShell commands: Use `pwsh.exe -c "command"`
- To call PowerShell commands like Get-WinEvent use `pwsh.exe -c "Get-WinEvent"`
- Batch files: Use `cmd //c "script.bat"`

## Windows Commands in Git Bash
- Double-escape parameters starting with `/`: `taskkill //F //PID 1234`
- This applies to most native Windows utilities (taskkill, robocopy, etc.)

I also see funny things on Windows like:

Bash(cd /d D:\projects\project1 && dart test)
Error: cd to '/d D:projectsproject' was blocked. For security, Claude Code may only change directories
to child directories of the allowed working directories for this session: 'D:\projects\project1'.

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5041
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/4122
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5098

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

there are also issues when it attempts to run find and expects a gnu compatable tool not the windows find.exe (which is earlier in the path).

worked around with ``when attempting to run find you must use the command c:\cygwin\bin\find instead``

That's the problem with "Windows Native". It is a sloppy job.

The model should be finetuned to know how to use PowerShell and CMD shell natively. In CC's system prompt, inject the correct OS, so the model knows what tools and how to use them.

Any updates on this? 2.0 release doesn't seem to improve/enhance the Windows native experience with powershell/pwsh in any noticeable way and it makes hooks all but unusable in any non trivial scenario.

Hi, any progress on this? ChatGPT user here, waiting for functional CC in Windows PowerShell 7 to give CC a chance.

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Claude still breaks often when combining Unix-style commands and Windows path separators, e.g. right now encountered a case when it tried to call

● Bash(tail -100 T:\Temp\claude\A--Work-ultimate-hierophant\tasks\bf5fd46.output)                                                                                                 
  ⎿  Error: Exit code 1                                                                                                                                                           
     tail: cannot open 'T:TempclaudeA--Work-ultimate-hierophanttasksbf5fd46.output' for reading: No such file or directory   

If you use Bash, you should use Bash line separators, and something like /t/Temp probably. If you prefer Windows separators then fork to Windows shell.

CC is a joke on windows and they dont seem to care. On the other hand they block oauth usage of opencode that doesnt suffer from this symptoms because the devs know how to design propper TUI's.

+1 for please, fix the Claude Code Windows native experience.
I am using Command Prompt inside Windows Terminal and Claude Code is launching itself inside git-bash. These combinations don't workout well.
I would suggest to let Claude Code really run native on Windows. There are enough tools available to solve problems, if - yes, if - Claude Code could use them without running in errors. If it really needs the git-bash tools, it could launch them on demand (if they are available) like it tries now with cmd.exe, but fails to do so because it needs to double escape all the parameters.

Claude itself would highly prefer a clean and real Windows native solution:

Honestly, yes — for my use case, running in cmd or PowerShell directly would likely be cleaner. Here's my reasoning: Why cmd/PowerShell might be better for Claude Code: 1. I have dedicated tools — I don't need bash's grep, find, cat, sed because I have Grep, Glob, Read, Edit tools that work natively 2. Fewer escaping layers — The $env issue we just hit, path backslash problems, quote nesting — all go away 3. Windows-native tools just work — PowerShell, .NET commands, Windows paths without translation 4. Git works fine in cmd — Git for Windows includes git.exe that runs natively When I'd still want bash: - Complex shell scripting with pipes, loops, conditionals - Running Linux-oriented build scripts - Tools that only exist in Unix ecosystem A hybrid approach could work well: - Default to cmd/PowerShell - Explicitly call bash -c '...' when Unix tools are genuinely needed

Still happening on Windows 11 with Claude Code latest. CLAUDE_CODE_SHELL is set to "pwsh" in ~/.claude/settings.json under the env key. The env var shows up inside the session (echo $CLAUDE_CODE_SHELL returns "pwsh"), but the Bash tool still uses /usr/bin/bash (Git Bash). pwsh is installed and works fine when invoked explicitly.

Workaround: prefixing commands with pwsh -Command or pwsh -File -, but the Bash tool itself ignores the setting.

Yet another Windows issue introduced: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/24855

A fix is available as a Claude Code plugin: powershell-default

Install:

/plugin marketplace add cruzlauroiii/claude-code
/plugin install powershell-default@cruzlauroiii-plugins

Adds a native Pwsh tool (shows as Pwsh(...) in the UI). Commands use PowerShell syntax directly. When enabled, Bash tool is blocked. Works on any OS with PowerShell 7+.

PR: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/pull/35761