Claude CLI "Not logged in" when spawned from Claude Code VSCode extension on Windows

[Mustfazcn]

When running caliber refresh from Claude Code VSCode extension terminal (or PowerShell), it fails with "Not logged in · Please run /login" even though claude auth status returns loggedIn: true.

Expected: caliber refresh should successfully analyze changes and update configs.
Actual: Exits with code 1, stdout contains "Not logged in · Please run /login".

Debug findings:

• claude auth status → {"loggedIn": true, "authMethod": "claude.ai"}
• echo "test" | claude -p → works fine in PowerShell
• But when Caliber spawns claude -p via child_process.spawn(), Claude's anti-recursion check fires
• Stripping CLAUDECODE, CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT, CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH env vars did NOT fix it
• Related to fix: strip CLAUDECODE env vars from claude subprocess to prevent auth failure #148 but env var stripping alone doesn't resolve on Windows

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a project in VSCode with Claude Code extension active
2. Run caliber init → select "Claude Code"
3. Run caliber refresh from VSCode integrated terminal
4. Also fails from standalone PowerShell terminal
5. claude auth status confirms logged in
6. echo "test" | claude -p works fine manually
7. But caliber refresh always fails with "Not logged in"

Caliber version

v1.41.1

LLM Provider

Claude Code (seat)

Node.js version

v24.14.0

Operating system

Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200

[Mustfazcn]

Update: Root cause found

The issue is NOT just CLAUDECODE and CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT. The real culprit is CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE=1.

Proof

In src/llm/claude-cli.ts, spawnClaude() sets:

const env = { ...process.env, CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE: "1" };
This CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE env var triggers Claude CLI's anti-recursion check, causing it to exit with code 1 and stdout: "Not logged in · Please run /login".

Fix that works
Remove CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE from the spawned env AND strip the other Claude vars:


function cleanEnvForClaude() {
  const env = { ...process.env };
  delete env.CLAUDECODE;
  delete env.CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT;
  delete env.CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH;
  delete env.CLAUDE_AGENT_SDK_VERSION;
  delete env.CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_SDK_FILE_CHECKPOINTING;
  // Do NOT set CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE — it triggers anti-recursion
  return env;
}

Result
With this fix, caliber refresh passes the auth check and Claude CLI successfully processes the prompt. However, a new error appears:


Unexpected token 'l', "[locale]" is not valid JSON
This is a separate issue — Caliber tries to JSON.parse Claude CLI's plain text output which contains Next.js dynamic route paths like [locale], [slug].

[alonp98]

Fixed by #165 — same root cause as #138 and #147. Claude Code env vars are now stripped when spawning claude -p.

[alonp98]

Thanks for the detailed debug findings @Mustfazcn! The fix strips all Claude Code environment variables (CLAUDECODE, CLAUDE_CODE_*) when spawning the claude subprocess, so anti-recursion detection no longer fires. This should resolve the "Not logged in" error on Windows as well. Please upgrade and let us know if it works for you!

[Mustfazcn]

Still broken in v1.45.3 — CLAUDE_AGENT_SDK_VERSION not stripped

@alonp98
Upgraded to v1.45.3 which includes the cleanClaudeEnv() fix (strips
CLAUDECODE + CLAUDE_CODE_* vars), but caliber refresh still fails with
the same "not logged in" error.

Root cause (verified): CLAUDE_AGENT_SDK_VERSION is not stripped by
cleanClaudeEnv(). It has a CLAUDE_AGENT_ prefix (not CLAUDE_CODE_),
so it slips through. When caliber spawns claude -p with this var
still present, Claude's anti-recursion check fires and exits with
"Not logged in".

Verified fix: manually stripping CLAUDE_AGENT_SDK_VERSION before
spawning claude -p makes the call succeed:

const env = { ...process.env };
delete env.CLAUDECODE;
delete env.CLAUDE_AGENT_SDK_VERSION; // <-- also needed
Object.keys(env).filter(k => k.startsWith('CLAUDE_CODE_')).forEach(k => delete env[k]);
// spawn claude with this env → works

Additional issue (Windows-specific): after caliber refresh exits
(whether success or fail), Node.js crashes with:

Assertion failed: !(handle->flags & UV_HANDLE_CLOSING), file src\win\async.c, line 76

Workaround: pre-commit hook (caliber refresh --quiet) still runs on
every commit via the git hook, so docs stay in sync. Manual refresh
is blocked until this is fixed.

[Mustfazcn]

Additional issue on Windows:

PostToolUse/PostToolUseFailure/UserPromptSubmit hooks that run caliber learn observe cause a CMD window to flash open and close on every single tool call. On Linux/Mac these spawn silently in the background, but on Windows with shell: true they open a visible console window. Consider either adding "async": true to these hooks, or documenting that Windows users should manually remove them.