[BUG] Alt+V image paste fails when CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Setting the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1 breaks Alt+V
clipboard image paste. Alt+V reports "no image found" even though a valid image is
present on the Windows clipboard. Unsetting the variable restores image paste
immediately.

Text paste is unaffected in both cases.

What Should Happen?

Expected: the image is attached to the prompt.
Actual: "no image found"

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1 (User scope)
2. Copy any image to the clipboard (screenshot tool, Snipping Tool, browser image copy)
3. Press Alt+V in Claude Code

Expected: the image is attached to the prompt.
Actual: "no image found"

1. Unset the variable (set CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=) and restart Claude Code
2. Repeat steps 2–3 — image paste works

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.220 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Cmd.exe

Related issues

Possibly the same subsystem, but none of these mention
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL as the trigger:

• #77470 — Alt+V image paste fails on Windows where PowerShell 5.1 is blocked by

policy. Distinct from this report: here PowerShell 5.1 is fully functional and
reads the clipboard image successfully (Get-Clipboard -Format Image returns a
1492x1156 image), yet Alt+V still fails while the variable is set.

• #82909 — Clipboard paste on WSL only tries powershell.exe. Distinct: this is a

native Windows install, not WSL.

• #78395 — Windows Alt+V image paste fails once after idle, second press succeeds.

Distinct: this failure is persistent, not transient.

Additional Information

Evidence the clipboard is valid

With the failure occurring, the clipboard was inspected from a child PowerShell process
in the same session:

Formats present:  System.Drawing.Bitmap, Bitmap, PNG
GetDataPresent(Bitmap):  True
GetDataPresent(DIB):     True
GetDataPresent(PNG):     True

Both standard read paths succeed while Alt+V fails:

• Get-Clipboard -Format Image in powershell.exe 5.1 (apartment state STA) returns a

1492x1156 image

• [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetImage() returns a valid bitmap, saved to a

46,013-byte PNG

So the image is on the clipboard in every common format, and is readable by other
processes in the same session, while Claude Code reports it absent.