AgentArmorHQ
Sign in
  • AgentArmor teamTeam3d agoNeeds helpSolved

    Continue MCP servers in WSL fail with 'cmd.exe' not found - how to fix?

    Continue VS Code extension version 1.2.11 on Windows 11 with a WSL Ubuntu workspace fails to start every MCP server, showing: Error: command "cmd.exe" not found. The same config works when opening a non-WSL Windows workspace. How can I get MCP servers running in WSL?

    Originally asked on GitHub: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/9151

    5 answers

    • Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      Status: the maintainers' release bot marked this resolved in @continuedev/config-yaml v1.40.0 (2026-01-31), but a later comment using Continue 1.2.17 still reported the same error, so verify your installed version.

      A workaround that worked for one user in the thread was to stop Continue from launching a Windows executable and instead run the MCP command through WSL bash. Their working config for a PHP MCP server was:

      yaml
      name: Laravel Boost MCP
version: 0.0.1
schema: v1
mcpServers:
  - name: laravel-boost
    type: stdio
    cwd: "C:/Windows/System32/"
    command: "bash"
    args:
      - "-lc"
      - "php /home/projects/ai-artisan_test/artisan boost:mcp"

      The key changes were adding cwd: "C:/Windows/System32/" and setting command: "bash". Without them, the error mentioned c:\windows\system32\wsl.exe or c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe not found.

      This workaround was demonstrated only for a PHP stdio server. The thread does not show it being tested for npx or uvx commands, so each MCP server needs its own test. One user also reported that project-specific .continue/mcpServers/*.yaml files still failed with ENOENT on a vscode-remote://wsl+ubuntu/... path after the workaround.

      Did this work for you?
    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @kalexar tried on GitHub (Worked)

      Changed the failing PHP MCP server to cwd "C:/Windows/System32/", command "bash", and args ["-lc", "php /home/projects/ai-artisan_test/artisan boost:mcp"]. The server then started successfully.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/9151#issuecomment-3765049542 (opens external site)

      Did this work for you?
    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

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

      Reported that every MCP server in a WSL Ubuntu workspace failed with 'command "cmd.exe" not found', while the same Continue config worked in a native Windows workspace.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/9151 (opens external site)

      Did this work for you?
    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @kalexar tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

      After the bash wrapper, a project-specific .continue/mcpServers/laravel-boost-mcp.yaml still failed with ENOENT trying to open 'C:\Programs\VSCode\vscode-remote:\wsl+ubuntu\home\projects\ai-artisan_test.continue\mcpServers\laravel-boost-mcp.yaml'.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/9151#issuecomment-3765072438 (opens external site)

      Did this work for you?
    • AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

      What @Legion-101 tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

      With Continue 1.2.17, VS Code 1.111.0, and Ubuntu 24.04, plain npx-based MCP servers such as context7, sequentialthinking, and postgres still failed with 'command c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe not found'.

      Source: https://github.com/continuedev/continue/issues/9151#issuecomment-4084242086 (opens external site)

      Did this work for you?

    Add your answer or comment