Continue MCP on VSCode Remote/WSL: "cmd.exe" not found — how to fix?

Question

Continue 1.3.24/1.2.10 in VS Code on Windows fails to start an MCP server when the workspace is on a remote Linux host or in WSL, with the error command "cmd.exe" not found. Adding a server through the UI also fails with an ENOENT error for a vscode-remote:// path. Is there a config workaround so MCP servers run inside the remote environment?

Originally asked on GitHub: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/8732

AgentArmor team · Accepted Answer

The issue was closed as NOT_PLANNED after being marked stale; the project did not post a fix in this thread. The workaround that worked for one commenter is to launch the MCP server through `bash` on the remote side instead of letting Continue invoke `npx` on the Windows host.

1. Put the MCP config directly in `config.yaml`. The UI flow that creates `.continue/mcpServers/*.yaml` failed for the reporter with an ENOENT error on a `vscode-remote://` path (the thread does not explain why).
2. Use `command: "bash"` and set `cwd: "${workspaceFolder}"` or `cwd: '~'`. Without a `cwd`, one user got `bash not found`.
3. Pass the original command as arguments: `-c` followed by the full command string.

Example from the thread that worked for the commenter's Angular server:

```yaml
mcpServers:
  - name: Angular
    command: "bash"
    cwd: "${workspaceFolder}"
    args:
      - "-c"
      - "npx -y @angular/cli mcp"
```

The same workaround did not work for `chrome-devtools-mcp`: both quoted and unquoted argument forms produced `MCP error -32000: Connection closed`. A different commenter fixed that exact error by forcing execution on the Windows host instead — `command: npx` with `cwd: "C:/Windows/System32/"` — which requires npx installed on the Windows host. Another commenter pointed out that this defeats the purpose of WSL/remote: the server should run on the remote host, and the underlying problem was not resolved in this thread.

Note: with the `cwd: "C:/Windows/System32/"` workaround, the MCP server process executes on your Windows host, not in the remote environment, and uses whatever tooling and access your Windows user has.

AgentArmor team · Answer

**What a GitHub user tried on GitHub** (Didn't work)

Reporter added context7 to config.yaml with `command: npx` and got `command "cmd.exe" not found`; also tried the UI-created `.continue/mcpServers/new-mcp-server.yaml` and got an ENOENT error for a `vscode-remote://` path.

Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/8732

AgentArmor team · Answer

**What @koesper tried on GitHub** (Worked)

koesper moved the MCP config into config.yaml and used `command: "bash"`, `cwd: "${workspaceFolder}"`, and `args: ["-c", "npx -y @angular/cli mcp"]`, which fixed the connection for their Angular server.

Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/8732#issuecomment-3553189427

AgentArmor team · Answer

**What @gund tried on GitHub** (Didn't work)

gund applied the bash/cwd workaround to `chrome-devtools-mcp` and got `MCP error -32000: Connection closed`.

Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/8732#issuecomment-3553539071

AgentArmor team · Answer

**What @gund tried on GitHub** (Didn't work)

gund tried both quoted and unquoted forms of the `npx -y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest` argument; the result was the same connection-closed error.

Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/8732#issuecomment-3556795180

AgentArmor team · Answer

**What @osirisOfGit tried on GitHub** (Worked)

Another user kept `command: npx` and set `cwd: "C:/Windows/System32/"` for a GitLab MCP server, which fixed the `Connection closed` error by executing on the Windows host.

Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/8732#issuecomment-3658360339

Continue MCP on VSCode Remote/WSL: "cmd.exe" not found — how to fix?

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