Skills issues on Windows
Issues the maintainers labelled both platform:windows and area:skills.
170 issues · 32 open · 138 resolved (81%) · first seen Jan 5, 2026
Is this getting better or worse?
This class of problem is converging. 51 new reports in the last 90 days vs 114 in the 90 before — -55%. The open backlog peaked at 48 in 2026-04 and sits at 32 today.
Derived by counting each matching issue from its creation date until it closed. First-party
computation over the anthropics/claude-code tracker — the trend is not published
anywhere upstream.
Which builds report this
94 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 66 releases. Heaviest reporters:
- Claude Code v2.1.126
- Claude Code v2.1.92
- Claude Code v2.1.119
- Claude Code v2.1.150
- Claude Code v2.1.123
- Claude Code v2.1.108
- Claude Code v2.1.96
- Claude Code v2.1.235
Report volume, not a defect count: an issue can mention a build without that build having caused the failure. Versions come from the version string in the bug-report template, matched against real published tags.
Do these get fixed?
Median time to close is 32 days across 138 closures. Of the 138 closures with a recorded reason, 16% were closed as completed and 116 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-08.
Workarounds reported by the community
55 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:
- [Feature Request] Support standard `.github/skills/` directory for agent skills
- Workaround while Claude Code only loads : keep one skill source and copy it into Claude’s paths. That writes (and if you have instructions). It does not make Claude Code read — it is a workaround until this ships. I main…
Found in the thread of #16345 · still open - [BUG] Cowork /schedule skill fails — create_scheduled_task tool not injected into session context (Windows)
- 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) -
Found in the description of #29022 · still open - [BUG] /claude-api bundled skill saturates context unconditionally — ~77% spike from neutral question
- …has the right file structure — it just needs a router. ▎ ▎ Workaround: A user command at ~/.claude/commands/claude-api.md overrides the bundled skill and implements on-demand loading. Effective but fragile — requires ma…
Found in the description of #63566 · resolved - Skill tool call returns 'Tool result missing due to internal error' and agent gets stuck
- …aming hangs indefinitely - 26224 — General hanging/freezing Workaround User must Ctrl+C and manually re-invoke the skill. The CLAUDE.md directive to "immediately retry on internal error" is not followed because the agent…
Found in the description of #43866 · resolved - [BUG] Skill subagent inherits parent's 1M-context tier but not extra-usage entitlement
- …log warning instead of failing the subagent. Today the only workaround is to remove the directive entirely (subagent inherits parent + parent's already-paid extra-usage), which defeats the cost-saving intent of declaring…
Found in the description of #57249 · resolved
Excerpts are quoted from the linked issue so you can judge relevance before opening it. Threads that only ask for a workaround, or report that there is none, are excluded. These are community suggestions, not official guidance from Anthropic — read the full thread before applying one.
Matching issues 1–100
Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments).
- [Feature Request] Support standard `.github/skills/` directory for agent skills
- [BUG] Cowork /schedule skill fails — create_scheduled_task tool not injected into session context (Windows)
- [BUG] /claude-api bundled skill saturates context unconditionally — ~77% spike from neutral question
- VS Code extension skill validator rejects valid frontmatter fields
- Skill tool call returns 'Tool result missing due to internal error' and agent gets stuck
- /buddy command removed — was told pet would persist
- [Bug] Skill descriptions truncated due to context budget constraints
- [BUG] Skill subagent inherits parent's 1M-context tier but not extra-usage entitlement
- [BUG] Invoking a skill (slash command) pins a large injected block and shrinks the assistant response into a tiny scroll area (VS Code extension)
- [BUG] Skills/commands with `disable-model-invocation: true` are hidden from agent, blocking user-initiated slash invocation
- Code-tab Customize -> Skills is missing skills that are present in ~/.claude/skills (non-deterministic; / menu and engine load them all)
- Skill invocation fails with '1M context extra usage required' even when already on 1M model
- [BUG] Custom skills from ~/.claude/skills/ not appearing in "/" autocomplete dropdown (Desktop app, Windows)
- [BUG] Cowork: skill upload truncates files >99 KB and leaves null-byte tail on re-upload
- [BUG] Skills are not loaded from `additionalDirectories`, but are from `--add-dir`
- [BUG] Windows Desktop app 1.37937 (2026-08-25 update): slash autocomplete blank, then first-position-only / single-command, chip styling gone
- [BUG] Skill invocation prompt is blocking the output.
- Skill auto-triggering: recall=0% in headless mode (claude -p) regardless of description content
- [BUG] Cowork slash commands return "Unknown skill" — affects custom org plugin skills AND built-in /feedback
- 3 free ultrareview runs consumed but crashed due to server-side rate limit — no findings returned
- [BUG] /ultrareview: three back-to-back runs produced no usable findings across different diff shapes (Dedupe crash → silent empty → silent empty)
- [BUG] Ultrareview crashes repeatedly on large PRs – no findings produced
- [SYS-032] Ultrareview crash kills Remote Control session — cascading failure, no isolation
- [Bug] Claude Code not following skill instructions
- Slash-command menu returns zero matches when query contains `.` (regression 2.1.160 → 2.1.161)
- Plugin skills from custom/private marketplaces appear in slash menu but fail with "Unknown skill" on invocation
- [MODEL] Claude Code stopped delegating to custom subagents and loading skills — regression persists in Opus 4.6
- [BUG] `context: fork` and subagents appear to use a different (lighter) model despite model configuration
- [BUG] skill-creator: run_loop.py crashes on Windows with UnicodeEncodeError on HTML report
- [BUG] Skill and agent frontmatter hooks silently not firing (CLI, Windows)
- Feature request: background: true in custom command/skill frontmatter
- Multiple server-side flags incorrectly restricting Pro user features: auto mode, skills dashboard, permission friction
- [Bug] Agent fails to discover project-local skills when resolving slash commands
- [BUG] Skills with `context: fork` fail with "disable-model-invocation" when invoked via Skill tool (v2.1.113)
- Claude ignores installed MCP skills, writes wrong code 3x instead of verifying first (Shopify)
- [BUG] /simplify skill does not specify subagent_type, first agent launch always fails
- Slash commands should be case-insensitive (e.g. /TODO should work like /todo)
- Self-modification guard prompts for .claude/skills/ files despite documented exemption
- [BUG] Plugin skills not directly loaded when invoked via slash command — spawns unnecessary Explore agents
- [BUG] Flat ``.md-files`` in ``/.claude/skills/`` silently ignored — no error, confusing given "merged" messaging
- User message lost when slash command fails with 'Unknown skill'
- [BUG] Parent skill halts entirely after nested skill completes — remaining steps never execute
- [BUG] Slash command menu no longer triggers mid-input in the desktop app (regression; #44447 covered the terminal)
- Skills added mid-session (e.g. via `git switch` to a branch that adds `.claude/skills/<name>/`) are registered for the Skill tool but never appear in the slash-command menu; `/reload-skills` reports "no changes" and does not fix it
- Skill slash-command intermittently unresolved at session start, works in a fresh session
- [BUG]/insights generates empty report — no AI insights produced (facets directory never created)
- Desktop app omits Windows junction/symlink skills from the / command menu (agent loader resolves them fine)
- [BUG] /init silently misses source files in repos with many files due to Glob truncation
- [BUG] MCP servers intermittently fail to connect when invoking skills via claude -p (headless mode)
- [BUG] paths: frontmatter never triggers skill auto-loading when Claude reads/edits a matching file
- skill-creator run_eval.py: Windows incompatibility — select.select() fails on pipe handles (WinError 10038)
- Skills from marketplace plugins not activated after installation (missing copy to ~/.claude/skills/)
- [BUG] Skill tool's args parameter drops the first token before $1/$2 substitution
- Used up 1 Ultrareview credit, but claude crashed and threw error API Error: Server is temporarily limiting requests (not your usage limit) · Rate limited
- C:/Program Files/Git/ultrareview crashed before producing findings — burned a usage
- Plugin slash-command autocomplete drops namespace prefix on accept
- [BUG] Slash command autocomplete shows only ~5 built-in commands, hides all 78 custom skills (regression from #22020)
- Custom slash commands from .claude/commands/ not populating / autocomplete menu (v2.1.108)
- [BUG] /insights report makes misleading productivity judgments from incomplete local-only data
- [Bug] Permission allow rules not applied for Bash(mkdir) in skill contexts and default mode
- [BUG] Skills and hooks not available in worktrees created by `claude -w`
- .claude/commands/ files deleted within seconds of session start (v2.1.81)
- [BUG] Why is the `context: fork` skill ineffective?
- skill-creator: run_loop.py fails on Windows with socket error in claude -p subprocess
- [BUG] /clear built-in command being intercepted as a skill lookup
- [BUG] skill-creator crashes on Windows due to non-UTF-8 terminal encoding (GBK, Shift-JIS, etc.)
- Skill tool fails with EEXIST on Windows when username contains non-ASCII characters
- Skill with unquoted ": " in SKILL.md description is silently dropped from the skills list / slash menu (CLI, no diagnostic)
- `deep-research` skill permanently disappears from autocomplete after a session hits usage limit mid-run (all other built-in skills unaffected)
- Slash command/skill with `context: fork` returns result as `<local-command-stdout>` instead of a visible assistant message (output never renders)
- [BUG] Cowork: skill scripts silently truncated on disk at a token boundary, passing py_compile and becoming canonical
- [BUG] effort: frontmatter silently ignored in commands/*.md slash commands (works in skills/SKILL.md)
- [BUG] Skills upload returns "Failed to fetch" on Claude Desktop
- [BUG] the connector-query API the skill uses is returning empty when connectors are present.
- System prompt advertises uninstallable Cowork skills as "available"
- [BUG] Review crashed before producing findings
- Ultrareview crashes before producing findings (2 consecutive failures)
- [BUG] unable to use ultrareview
- [BUG] /ultrareview crashes at Dedupe step after successful Verify — findings unrecoverable
- [Bug] /ultrareview crashes mid-stream on a normal-sized PR (no findings)
- [BUG] `/ultrareview <PR#>` fails when origin remote uses an SSH host alias for multi-account setups
- [Bug] Anthropic API Error: Dedup stage crash on /ultrareview with no findings and misleading billing
- [BUG] Open Claude Desktop and Bit Defender tells me malware has entered my system download-skill_[0126S7qbJMFG8MgX2vmyeRHX-1777218280219.zip
- [Bug] `/buddy` command disappears or becomes unavailable
- Auto Mode auto-disables after Plan Mode cycle (triggered by plan-first skills); documented workaround keys appear ineffective
- My project skills don't auto-load as commands in Claude Code
- Bug: anthropic-skills:docx hangs silently on Windows 11 (Write permission denied)
- /telegram:access skill ignores TELEGRAM_STATE_DIR — breaks multi-instance pairing
- Desktop app: "Could not load skill files" for custom marketplace plugins
- [BUG] 작성한 스킬의 description이 스킬목록에서 보이지 않아.
- Custom skills not visible in slash commands or Settings > Skills UI
- [Bug] Built-in `/bug` command intercepted by user-defined skills in remote sessions
- [BUG] `/security-review` command fails in git repository.
- bug(vscode): Skill tool crashes with EEXIST when home dir is used as working directory on Windows
- model: frontmatter in custom commands doesn't manage context for target model's window
- /gsd:progress and file write operations trigger recurring 500 Internal Server Error from Anthropic API
- [BUG] disable-model-invocation: true still hides skills from model entirely (regression from #43660)
- [BUG] `/loop` scheduled cron fires at wrong time — offset from session start instead of declared cron minute
- [BUG] /insights output renders \.claude path incorrectly on Windows due to markdown escape
- [BUG] Claude for Windows (desktop): built-in /create-pr (GitHub) runs instead of project custom command; terminal & VS Code work correctly