runTerminalCommand fails with "spawn powershell.exe ENOENT" when VS Code on Windows host connects to WSL2/Dev Container - Continue extension ignores container environment

[winguru]

Before submitting your bug report

• I've tried using the "Ask AI" feature on the Continue docs site to see if the docs have an answer
• I'm not able to find a related conversation on GitHub discussions that reports the same bug
• I'm not able to find an open issue that reports the same bug
• I've seen the troubleshooting guide on the Continue Docs

Relevant environment info

- OS: Windows 11 with WSL2
- Continue version: 1.3.30
- IDE version: VSCode 1.108.2
- Model: Z.AI GLM 4.7
- config: https://www.continue.dev/geoff-thornton/vscode-zai

Description

Environment

Component	Version/Detail
OS	Windows 11 Build 26100
VS Code	1.108.2
Continue Extension	1.3.30
Remote	WSL2 / Docker Dev Container
Dev Container OS	Linux
Node.js	22.21.1
Shell in Container	bash 5.2.37(1)-release
Electron	39.2.7 (Build 12953945)
Chromium	142.0.7444.235
V8	14.2.231.21-electron.0

Confirmed Environment Variables

Dev Container Detection (Present):

REMOTE_CONTAINERS="true"
REMOTE_CONTAINERS_IPC="/tmp/vscode-remote-containers-ipc-..."
REMOTE_CONTAINERS_SOCKETS="[\"/tmp/.X11-unix/X2\"]"
SHELL="/bin/bash"
PWD="/app"

Continue Extension Environment (Missing):

CONTINUE_DEV_MODE=""                       # Not set
CONTINUE_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=""                # Not set
VSCODE_REMOTE_CONTAINERS_SESSION=""        # Not set
VSCODE_REMOTE_SERVER=""                    # Not set
VSCODE_REMOTE_USER=""                    # Not set

Description

runTerminalCommand tool fails with error when Continue VS Code extension is installed on local Windows machine and tries to execute commands in a WSL2/Dev Container environment:

run_terminal_command failed with message: spawn powershell.exe ENOENT

Please try something else or request further instructions.```

### To reproduce

Ask the Continue agent to run a terminal script:

```I'm trying to debug an AI agent tool to run commands in a terminal.  Can you request to run a harmless command like "echo Hello, world!"```

<img width="470" height="211" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ea8473f0-a7f4-4e72-9194-b8ec0274f720" />

The agent (GLM 4.7) thinks about the request and then generates a `run_terminal_command` request:

<img width="468" height="297" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3ae82898-2bc1-46e9-b72e-53e7c22a6415" />

Clicking on "Run" sends the command to the VSCode terminal window properly, but if you try to "Accept" the request to run the command, you get the following error:

<img width="462" height="170" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d8289314-cc27-4a1f-a388-f16ddb0a7146" />

run_terminal_command failed with message: spawn powershell.exe ENOENT

Please try something else or request further instructions.```

vscode-app-1769700491328.log

Log output

I'm not sure what logs are revelant, so I saved the entire console log and attached the file above.

[sestinj]

Related issues:

• VSCode: spawn powershell.exe ENOENT #9661 - VSCode: spawn powershell.exe ENOENT (same error, WSL environment - closed/fixed by PR fix: use ide.runCommand when Windows host connects to WSL #9679)
• Terminal output not captured when Windows VS Code connects to WSL (follow-up to #9679) #9731 - Terminal output not captured when Windows VS Code connects to WSL (follow-up to the fix)
• CLI: runTerminalCommand has no remote/WSL detection #9736 - CLI's runTerminalCommand has no remote environment detection
• IntelliJ: Windows → WSL remote not detected (only SSH detected) #9735 - IntelliJ WSL detection missing (same root cause)
• shellPath.ts returns undefined for Windows even when connected to WSL #9737 - getEnvPathFromUserShell() returns undefined for Windows/WSL
• Continue VS Code extension fails to start MCP servers in WSL workspaces (looks for cmd.exe inside Ubuntu) #9151 - MCP servers fail in WSL workspaces (looks for cmd.exe instead of bash)
• Bug: Cannot run commands in terminal "The URL must be of scheme file" #8091 - "The URL must be of scheme file" error in dev containers (fixed by PR fix: handle non-file URI schemes in runTerminalCommand for WSL2 #9325)

This appears to be a continuation of the same class of issues where the extension doesn't properly detect remote environments (WSL/Dev Containers) and attempts to use Windows shell executables in Linux environments.

[winguru]

I've tried various workarounds with no success, but admittedly am relatively new to debugging VSCode extension issues. Please let me know if I can provide any more information or can otherwise help with running tests. I'm on your Discord server as @WinGuru.

[csubhodeep]

I am facing the same problem

Could anyone PLEASE suggest a temporary workaround? 😢

Specs:

Version: 1.109.0 (Universal)
Commit: bdd88df003631aaa0bcbe057cb0a940b80a476fa
Date: 2026-02-04T02:01:38.288Z
Electron: 39.3.0
ElectronBuildId: 13168319
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
Dev Container OS: Darwin arm64 25.2.0
Dev Container Image: mcr.microsoft.com/vscode/devcontainers/python:3.10-bullseye
Host OS: MacOS 26.2 (25C56)

P.S. it works fine when I open a new VSCode window from the host OS directly i.e. not inside the dev container.