fix: use ide.runCommand when Windows host connects to WSL #9679
+34
−1
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
When the VS Code extension runs on Windows but connects to WSL, direct shell spawning fails because process.platform is "win32" but commands should execute in the Linux WSL environment. This caused: spawn powershell.exe ENOENT The fix detects this scenario and falls back to ide.runCommand(), letting VS Code handle the remote terminal execution properly. Fixes continuedev#9661 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <[email protected]>
shanevcantwell
requested review from
Patrick-Erichsen
and removed request for
a team
dosubot
bot
added
the
size:M
![cubic-dev-ai[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/1082092?s=60&v=4){kind=small}
RomneyDa
approved these changes
Jan 20, 2026
Collaborator
RomneyDa
left a comment
RomneyDa
left a comment
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Great fix for the terminal tool
Sign up for free
to subscribe to this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in.
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Summary
spawn powershell.exe ENOENTerror when Windows VS Code connects to WSL remoteide.runCommand()instead of direct spawnProblem
When the VS Code extension runs on Windows (
process.platform === "win32") but connects to a WSL remote (ideInfo.remoteName === "wsl"), the terminal command tool tries to spawnpowershell.exewhich doesn't exist in the WSL context.Solution
Added detection for this specific scenario to fall through to the
ide.runCommand()path, letting VS Code's integrated terminal handle the remote execution properly.Test plan
powershell.exe ENOENT)Fixes #9661
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
Continue Tasks:▶️ 2 queued — View all
Summary by cubic
Fixes command execution when VS Code runs on Windows but connects to a WSL remote by routing commands through ide.runCommand instead of spawning a Windows shell. Prevents “spawn powershell.exe ENOENT” and lets VS Code run commands in WSL.
Written for commit ce0602e. Summary will update on new commits.