[Your Knowledge Wanted!!] How can Tasks in VS Code automate Claude Code activation in WSL terminal?

[mickitty0511]

Problem Description

I'm trying to run Claude Code through VS Code's tasks.json configuration in a WSL environment, but getting a "command not found" error.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 with WSL2
• WSL Distribution: Ubuntu-22.04
• VS Code: Using tasks.json to run Claude in WSL terminal(* WSL terminal is the default terminal)

Current Configuration

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "Run Claude in WSL Terminal",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "claude",
            "options": {
                "shell": {
                    "executable": "wsl.exe",
                    "args": [
                        "-e",
                        "bash",
                        "-c"
                    ]
                }
            },
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "always",
                "panel": "new"
            },
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "problemMatcher": [],
            "runOptions": {
                "runOn": "folderOpen"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Error Output

bash: line 1: claude: command not found
The terminal process "wsl.exe -e bash -c claude" terminated with exit code: 127.

Attempted Solutions

I've checked the following:

• Node.js and npm are properly installed in WSL
• Tried running which claude, then get a proper result "/home/[username]/.nvm/versions/node/v22.16.0/bin/claude"

I'm new to using tasks in VS Code.
Any guidance on the proper setup would be greatly appreciated!

[ant-kurt]

Looks like this is a consequence of how wsl loads profiles when invoked in interactive vs non-interactive mode, plus how nvm adds itself to the path.

I was able to get it working with this:

"args": [
    "-e",
    "bash",
    "-c",
    "\"source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh && claude\""
]

You can see the difference in paths by entering wsl then echo $PATH vs wsl.exe -e bash -c "echo $PATH".

[mickitty0511]

@ant-kurt That works well!!! Thanks for your support, really appreciate it!!!