Cannot use within Claude extension for VS Code on Cursor on Windows

[trustdan]

Windows Compatibility Issue: spawn ENOENT Error When Executing Gemini Commands

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 (Build 26200.6899)
• Node.js: Installed via nvm4w at C:\nvm4w\nodejs
• Gemini CLI: v0.12.0 (working correctly in terminal)
• MCP Client: Claude Code (VSCode/Cursor extension)
• gemini-mcp-tool: Installed via npx -y gemini-mcp-tool

Problem Description

The gemini-mcp-tool fails on Windows with spawn ENOENT errors when attempting to execute child processes. The error occurs consistently across all tool invocations:

Error executing ping: Failed to spawn command: spawn echo ENOENT
Error executing ask-gemini: Failed to spawn command: spawn gemini ENOENT

This happens even though:

• The gemini CLI is correctly installed and works perfectly in terminal sessions
• The gemini command is accessible via PATH (C:\nvm4w\nodejs\gemini.cmd)
• The MCP server starts successfully and accepts connections

Root Cause

The issue is a classic Node.js Windows compatibility problem related to how child_process.spawn() handles .cmd files and PATH resolution:

1. Missing shell: true option: On Windows, spawn() does not use a shell by default. This means it cannot find or execute .cmd or .bat files, which require cmd.exe to interpret them.

2. PATH inheritance: Even when PATH is set correctly in the parent process (the MCP server), child processes spawned without shell: true don't properly inherit or use the PATH environment variable on Windows.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install gemini-mcp-tool on Windows via npm/npx
2. Configure MCP client (e.g., Claude Code) with the following .claude.json:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "gemini-cli": {
         "type": "stdio",
         "command": "cmd",
         "args": [
           "/c",
           "set PATH=C:\\nvm4w\\nodejs;%PATH% && npx -y gemini-mcp-tool"
         ]
       }
     }
   }

3. Attempt to use any gemini-mcp-tool function
4. Observe spawn ENOENT errors

What We've Tried

We've attempted multiple workarounds to resolve the PATH/spawn issues:

1. ✅ Setting PATH in MCP config env object
2. ✅ Using full path to npx.cmd
3. ✅ Wrapping in cmd /c with explicit PATH setting
4. ✅ Creating batch file wrapper scripts
5. ✅ Using PowerShell wrapper

All approaches successfully launch the MCP server, but child processes spawned by gemini-mcp-tool still fail with ENOENT.

Suggested Fix

The issue needs to be fixed within the gemini-mcp-tool source code. When spawning child processes on Windows, one of these approaches should be used:

Option 1: Add shell: true to spawn calls (Recommended)

const child = spawn('gemini', args, {
  shell: true,  // Enable shell on Windows
  ...otherOptions
});

Option 2: Detect Windows and use cmd.exe wrapper

const isWindows = process.platform === 'win32';
const command = isWindows ? 'cmd' : 'gemini';
const args = isWindows ? ['/c', 'gemini', ...actualArgs] : actualArgs;

const child = spawn(command, args, otherOptions);

Option 3: Use cross-spawn package

The cross-spawn npm package handles this cross-platform compatibility automatically:

const spawn = require('cross-spawn');
const child = spawn('gemini', args, otherOptions);

Expected Behavior

The gemini-mcp-tool should work on Windows without requiring complex workarounds, similar to how it works on Unix-like systems.

Additional Context

This is a well-documented issue with Node.js on Windows:

• Node.js child_process.spawn() documentation
• The shell: true option is specifically designed to solve this problem on Windows

Many popular Node.js tools use cross-spawn or conditional logic to handle Windows compatibility.

Impact

This issue prevents Windows users from using gemini-mcp-tool with Claude Code and other MCP clients, limiting the tool's accessibility and adoption on Windows platforms.

---

Would you be open to a PR that fixes this issue? I'd be happy to contribute a fix if that would be helpful.

[jamubc]

Resolved by the Windows spawn fixes (4632620 in main, plus #76/#77). Closing.