[BUG] Alt+V image paste reports "clipboard is empty" on Windows 11 CLI v2.1.131 when clipboard contains a Bitmap
Environment
- Claude Code v2.1.131 (official installer at
%USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\claude.exe) - Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
- Windows Terminal + PowerShell 7
autoUpdatesChannel: latest- Bug present since fresh OS install ~7 days ago; persisted across multiple auto-updates
Symptom
Pressing Alt+V (the documented Windows CLI image-paste shortcut per #44499) reports "clipboard is empty" even when the clipboard demonstrably contains a Bitmap.
Repro
Win+Shift+S→ snip a region (clipboard now contains a Bitmap)- In Claude Code prompt, press Alt+V
- CC reports
clipboard is empty
Diagnostic — clipboard is NOT empty at the OS level
Verified via direct .NET interop in both STA and MTA threading modes:
pwsh -STA -NoProfile -Command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms; [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::ContainsImage()"
# Returns: True
pwsh -NoProfile -Command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms; [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::ContainsImage()"
# Returns: TrueSo STA-vs-MTA threading is not the cause — the clipboard image is reachable via standard System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard regardless of apartment state.
Cross-CLI confirmation
OpenAI Codex CLI in the same Windows Terminal session, same PowerShell 7 environment, reads the same clipboard and pastes the image successfully. The clipboard contents are genuinely accessible to a sibling Node-based CLI. This isolates the bug to Claude Code's clipboard-read implementation on Windows CLI.
Workaround in use
Saving the image to disk and pasting the file path string into the prompt works (Claude Code resolves the path and caches the image). Direct image-bytes paste via Alt+V does not.
Triage notes — searched for duplicates, none matched
- Not a duplicate of #54902 — that issue is the desktop app (
claude.exeGUI), not the CLI binary. - Not a duplicate of #50552 — WSL + BI_BITFIELDS BMP decode; different platform.
- Not a duplicate of #38807 — closed; opposite scenario (Alt+V captured when user wanted passthrough), from v2.1.83.
- Per #44499 — Alt+V is the documented working shortcut for image paste on Windows CLI; the closure of #44499 confirms this was the expected behavior.
7 Comments
Confirming this is still present on the latest version.
Environment: Claude Code 2.1.143, Windows 11, plain Windows Terminal + PowerShell (also reproduces in the PhpStorm/JetBrains terminal — not terminal-specific).
Clipboard is provably valid. Right after copying an image (Win+Shift+S snip, or Explorer right-click → Copy), running this in the same PowerShell session returns
True:So the bitmap is on the clipboard and accessible via the exact .NET API path, but Alt+V in Claude Code still reports no image found.
Regression timeline: worked reliably until ~2 weeks ago, then stopped suddenly with no config or environment change on my side.
Workaround confirmed: pasting the saved file's path as text (or dragging the file from Explorer) works fine — only the direct image-bytes Alt+V path is broken.
Are you fixing this????
Same issue for me. Windows 11 Pro 26200.8390, Windows Terminal 1.24.11321.0, PowerShell 7.6.1, and Claude Code 2.1.149
@udithaltc @cdrenshaw @taunoCL @skoodster
I wrote a blog about this with a fix. You don't have to wait for this to be resolved by the team.
https://rajveerb.com/blog/2026/05/24/on-the-difficulty-of-pasting-a-picture/#the-fix
@rajveerb - it didnt work for me. I followed the steps as per your blog. It still shows as nothing to paste.
@geeky-T check the latest commit. Also, if there are issues here is the link for the github https://github.com/rajveerb/wsl-clip-bridge simply post the issues there.
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