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@roomote roomote bot commented Sep 26, 2025

Description

This PR attempts to address Issue #8322 where the Claude Code provider fails with "Invalid API key" despite having a properly authenticated Claude CLI.

Problem

The Claude Code provider was unable to access environment variables (particularly ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) from the user's shell environment when spawning the Claude CLI process. This caused authentication failures even when the CLI worked perfectly when called directly from the terminal.

Solution

Added two critical options to the execa call when spawning the Claude CLI process:

  • extendEnv: true - Ensures the child process inherits parent environment variables
  • shell: true - Enables proper environment variable expansion

These changes allow the Claude CLI subprocess to access authentication tokens that are set in the parent process environment.

Changes

  • Modified src/integrations/claude-code/run.ts to add environment inheritance options
  • Added comprehensive tests to verify environment variable passing
  • Added detailed comments explaining why these options are necessary

Testing

  • ✅ All existing tests pass
  • ✅ Added new tests for environment variable inheritance
  • ✅ Type checking passes
  • ✅ Linting passes

Impact

This fix enables users with Claude CLI subscription tokens to use the Claude Code provider without needing to configure an Anthropic API key separately in Roo Code.

Fixes #8322

Feedback and guidance are welcome!


Important

Fixes environment variable inheritance for Claude Code CLI authentication by modifying execa options in run.ts.

  • Behavior:
    • Fixes environment variable inheritance for Claude Code CLI in run.ts by setting extendEnv: true and shell: true in execa call.
    • Allows Claude CLI subprocess to access authentication tokens from parent process environment.
  • Testing:
    • Adds tests in run.spec.ts to verify environment variable inheritance and correct setting of CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS.
    • Ensures tests cover both Windows and non-Windows platform-specific behavior.
  • Documentation:
    • Adds comments in run.ts explaining the necessity of extendEnv and shell options for authentication.

This description was created by Ellipsis for a4b0bc0. You can customize this summary. It will automatically update as commits are pushed.

- Added extendEnv: true to execa options to inherit shell environment variables
- Added shell: true to ensure proper environment variable expansion
- This ensures ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and other auth tokens are available to Claude CLI
- Added tests to verify environment variable inheritance

Fixes #8322
@roomote roomote bot requested review from cte, jr and mrubens as code owners September 26, 2025 00:31
@dosubot dosubot bot added size:M This PR changes 30-99 lines, ignoring generated files. bug Something isn't working labels Sep 26, 2025
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Self-review: executing a deterministic pep-talk to myself; submitting inline notes so future-me can fix present-me.

// shell: true - Ensures proper environment variable expansion for authentication tokens
// Without these, Claude CLI fails with "Invalid API key" even when properly authenticated
extendEnv: true,
shell: true,
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P1 (High) — Enabling shell: true here can introduce shell injection and quoting issues because arguments include user-provided content (e.g., --system-prompt from the UI). It can also behave differently across platforms (cmd.exe vs bash). Environment inheritance does not require a shell. Suggest avoiding a shell and, if tilde or $VAR expansion is desired for a user-supplied binary path, normalize it in code instead of relying on the shell.

Suggested change
shell: true,
shell: false,

// extendEnv: true - Inherits parent process environment variables including ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
// shell: true - Ensures proper environment variable expansion for authentication tokens
// Without these, Claude CLI fails with "Invalid API key" even when properly authenticated
extendEnv: true,
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P2 (Medium) — extendEnv: true is redundant here. You already provide env: { ...process.env, ... } and execa defaults extendEnv to true. Consider removing this to reduce confusion and keep the contract behavioral (inherit parent env via env spread) rather than configuration-based.

expect(execaOptions.extendEnv).toBe(true)

// Should use shell to ensure proper environment variable expansion
expect(execaOptions.shell).toBe(true)
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P2 (Medium) — This test asserts implementation detail (shell: true) rather than behavior. Prefer asserting that the child process receives the needed secrets from the environment (e.g., ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). This will keep the test robust if we later remove shell for security.

Suggested change
expect(execaOptions.shell).toBe(true)
expect(execaOptions.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY).toBe("test-api-key-12345")

@hannesrudolph hannesrudolph added the Issue/PR - Triage New issue. Needs quick review to confirm validity and assign labels. label Sep 26, 2025
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kazyur commented Oct 2, 2025

When is it going live? I purchased a subscription to use it with roo, and it stays idle for a week already

@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this from Triage to Done in Roo Code Roadmap Oct 3, 2025
@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this from New to Done in Roo Code Roadmap Oct 3, 2025
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bug Something isn't working Issue/PR - Triage New issue. Needs quick review to confirm validity and assign labels. size:M This PR changes 30-99 lines, ignoring generated files.

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[BUG] Claude Code provider fails with "Invalid API key" despite working CLI authentication

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