### Preflight Checklist - [x] I have searched [existing requests](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20label%3Aenhancement) and this feature hasn't been requested yet - [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features) ### Problem Statement The new Claude VS Code extension seems to always spawn `claude` from the bundled `claude-code` package: ``` node /home/user/.vscode-server/extensions/anthropic.claude-code-2.0.0/resources/claude-code/cli.js --output-f

[FEATURE] Allow the new Claude VS Code extension to configure the claude executable path

Status Fixed / completed

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 4 comments · opened Sep 30, 2025 · closed Oct 21, 2025

Preflight Checklist

[x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
[x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

The new Claude VS Code extension seems to always spawn claude from the bundled claude-code package:

node /home/user/.vscode-server/extensions/anthropic.claude-code-2.0.0/resources/claude-code/cli.js --output-format stream-json --verbose --input-format stream-json --append-system-prompt [...]

This may be because the extension is unable to find a native installation or a global NPM install of claude-code - instead, we use a wrapper script on PATH. This wrapper script performs some convenient setup, like setting up some infrastructure and the environment variables required to run Claude with our third-party model provider. The bundled claude-code doesn't perform this bootstrapping and won't work.

Proposed Solution

I would like to be able to configure the extension to use a claude executable by path.

Alternative Solutions

It's possible to rig up the environment variables via claude-code.environmentVariables settings in VS Code, but this is manual and doesn't fully cover the setup required.

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Developer tools/SDK

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

4 Comments

justin39 · 11 months ago

Appears to be fixed by the new claude-code.claudeProcessWrapper setting in VS Code; thanks!

MatevzFa · 11 months ago

I'm trying to accomplish exactly that, but I'm running into some issues.

I have set the following in .vscode/settings.json:

"claudeCode.claudeProcessWrapper": "${workspaceFolder}/claudew.bat",

Where claudew.bat is a batch script that sets up the environment and then launches Claude. Calling this script in the terminal works fine. However, launching integrated Claude Code gives me this error:

ReferenceError: Claude Code native binary not found at ${workspaceFolder}/claudew.bat. Please ensure Claude Code is installed via native installer or specify a valid path with options.pathToClaudeCodeExecutable.

@justin39 Could you help me with how you leveraged this setting to achieve what you wanted? Based on your issue description it seems to me we have a very similar use-case.

justin39 · 11 months ago

@MatevzFa That sounds like our use-case, yep! I don't think we're doing anything special to make it work on our end - just sets up the environment as well before invoking node <path to claude-code-cli.js>; maybe a platform difference between Linux and Windows?

github-actions[bot] · 11 months ago

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.