[BUG] [Desktop] Windows: terminal pane on SSH session fails with tilde-expansion error for ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Summary

In the Claude desktop app on Windows, the integrated terminal pane doesn't work for sessions on an SSH connection. It shows a tilde-expansion error about ~/.ssh/id_rsa and never connects. The agent session on the same SSH connection works fine.

Environment

• Client: Claude desktop app (Code tab), Windows laptop
• Remote: Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS VM (kernel 6.8.0-142-generic), non-root user; remote CLI 2.1.284
• SSH key auth; %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\config sets an absolute IdentityFile C:/Users/<name>/.ssh/id_rsa for every host, including this one

Steps to reproduce

1. Add an SSH connection in the desktop app and start a session on it. The agent session works: it can run commands on the remote.
2. Open that session's terminal pane.

Expected: a shell on the remote host.
Actual: a tilde-expansion error that names ~/.ssh/id_rsa; no shell.

Evidence that the failure happens on the Windows client before any connection

• The remote daemon log (~/.claude/remote/run/<id>/remote-server.log) has no PTY/terminal/shell entries for the terminal-pane attempts. Only the normal startup [shellenv] lines appear. The request never reaches the remote.
• No stored setting contains ~/.ssh/id_rsa. A search of %USERPROFILE%\.claude.json, %USERPROFILE%\.claude\ (including settings.json; it has no sshConfigs key) and %APPDATA%\Claude found no identity-file value. The literal seems to come from a built-in default in the terminal code path, not from user config.

Workarounds tried (none helped)

• Explicit absolute IdentityFile in ~/.ssh/config for this host, plus a full quit and relaunch from the system tray
• Setting a user HOME environment variable to C:\Users\<name>, plus a full quit and relaunch

Related

• #48393: no way to edit or delete saved SSH connections. That's why the identity file can't be checked or fixed from the UI.