Make PowerShell the Windows default shell, add configurable shell selection, and remove per-command shim overhead

[Copilot]

• Update root README.md: rename to freeCode, add vibe-coder tagline, add v2.4 feature section (voice input, file-watcher toast, tool-error inject, CLAUDE.md offer), fix Quick Start stale vsix/command-palette references, fix in-prose "FreeCode" → "freeCode"
• Update electron-app/README.md: rename to freeCode with vibe-coder subtitle, add v2.4 feature section, fix data storage path (%APPDATA%\freeCode\), fix installer filenames (freeCode Setup 1.0.0.exe, freeCode-1.0.0-portable.exe)
• Resolve merge conflicts with origin/main — merged multi-agent settings, provider management (validateProvider), and system-prompt preset alongside our defaultShell, MCP marketplace, voice input, and CLAUDE.md features

Original prompt

Problem

The current shell detection in both electron-app/main.js and vscode-extension/extension.js wastes tokens and time by:

1. Always trying WSL/Ubuntu first (even on systems without it), causing failed attempts before falling back to PowerShell.
2. Running spawnSync('wsl.exe', ['--status']) and spawnSync('wsl.exe', ['-d', 'Ubuntu', ...]) as detection probes on every cold start — these are slow and burn tokens when the agent retries shell commands.
3. No user-facing setting to choose their preferred shell — users are stuck with whatever the auto-detect picks.
4. PowerShell shims for POSIX tools (grep, cat, find, etc.) are injected as a string prefix on every single command, which is extremely verbose and wasteful.
5. The agent doesn't know which shell it's running in, so it may emit bash-syntax commands that fail in PowerShell, causing retry loops.

Goal

Make PowerShell the default and first-tried shell on Windows. Stop burning tokens on incompatible retries. Let users configure their preferred shell in Settings. Teach the agent to emit shell-appropriate commands.

---

Changes Required

1. New Setting: defaultShell

electron-app/main.js — DEFAULT_SETTINGS

Add:

defaultShell: 'auto', // 'auto' | 'powershell' | 'wsl' | 'ubuntu' | 'bash' | 'cmd'

vscode-extension/package.json — configuration properties

Add:

"openClaudeCode.defaultShell": {
  "type": "string",
  "enum": ["auto", "powershell", "wsl", "ubuntu", "bash", "cmd"],
  "enumDescriptions": [
    "Auto-detect best available shell (PowerShell preferred on Windows)",
    "Windows PowerShell (default on Windows)",
    "WSL — Windows Subsystem for Linux (generic)",
    "WSL Ubuntu distro specifically",
    "Bash (macOS/Linux default)",
    "Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe)"
  ],
  "default": "auto",
  "description": "Default shell used by the AI agent for running commands. PowerShell is the default on Windows."
}

electron-app/renderer/index.html — Settings Panel

Add a "Default Shell" dropdown in the settings panel under a new "Terminal & Shell" section:

┌─ Terminal & Shell ──────────────────────────────────┐
│  Default Shell:  [PowerShell ▼]                    │
│  (Used by the AI agent for all terminal commands)  │
│                                                    │
│  Available: ✅ PowerShell  ✅ WSL  ❌ Ubuntu       │
│  [Detect Available Shells]                         │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The "Detect Available Shells" button sends a detectShells IPC message and shows which shells are actually available on this machine.

---

2. Rewrite detectPreferredShell() — PowerShell First

electron-app/main.js

Replace the current detectPreferredShell() with a new version that:

1. Reads user setting first — if defaultShell is not 'auto', use it directly without any probing:

   function detectPreferredShell() {
     if (_preferredShell) return _preferredShell;
     const s = getSettings();
     const pref = s.defaultShell || 'auto';
     
     if (pref !== 'auto') {
       // User explicitly chose — use it directly, no probing
       _preferredShell = resolveShellByName(pref);
       return _preferredShell;
     }
     
     // auto-detect: PowerShell first on Windows
     if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
       _preferredShell = { type: 'bash', exe: 'bash', args: ['-c'], syntax: 'bash' };
       return _preferredShell;
     }
     
     // Windows: try PowerShell first (it's always available on modern Windows)
     if (isPowerShellAvailable()) {
       _preferredShell = { type: 'powershell', exe: 'powershell.exe', args: ['-NoProfile', '-NonInteractive', '-Command'], syntax: 'powershell' };
       return _preferredShell;
     }
     
     // Fallback: cmd
     _preferredShell = { type: 'cmd', exe: 'cmd.exe', args: ['/c'], syntax: 'cmd' };
     return _preferredShell;
   }

2. isPowerShellAvailable() — fast synchronous check:

   function isPowerShellAvailable() {
     try {
       const r = spawnSync('powershell.exe', ['-NoProfile', '-Command', 'exit 0'], {
         encoding: 'utf-8', timeout: 2000, windowsHide: true,
       });
       return r.status === 0;
     } catch { return false; }
   }

3. resolveShellByName(name) — maps setting value to shell config:

   function resolveShellByName(name) {
     const map = {
       powershell: { type: 'powershell', exe: 'powershell.exe', args: ['-NoProfile', '-NonInteractive', '-Command'], syntax: 'powershell' },
       wsl:        { type: 'wsl', exe: 'wsl.exe', args: ['bash', '-c'], syntax: 'bash' },
       ubuntu:     { type: 'ubuntu', exe: 'wsl.exe', args: ['-d', 'Ubuntu', '--', 'bash', '-c'], syntax: 'bash' },
       bash:       { type: 'bash', exe: 'bash', args: ['-c'], syntax: 'bash' },
       cmd:        { type: 'cmd', exe: 'cmd.exe', args: ['/c'], syntax: 'cmd' },
     };
     return map[name] || map['pow...

This pull request was created from Copilot chat.

[codomium]

@copilot resolve the merge conflicts in this pull request

[codomium]

@copilot resolve the merge conflicts in this pull request

[Copilot]

@copilot resolve the merge conflicts in this pull request

Merge conflicts resolved in commit 8091d47. The three conflicting files (main.js, package.json, renderer/chat.js) were merged to include both sets of changes — our branch's defaultShell, MCP marketplace, and freeCode rebrand alongside origin/main's multi-agent settings, validateProvider case, and system-prompt preset.

[Copilot]

@copilot resolve the merge conflicts in this pull request

The merge conflicts were already resolved in commit 8091d47. The branch is clean and up to date — all three conflicting files (electron-app/main.js, electron-app/package.json, electron-app/renderer/chat.js) were merged to include both sets of changes.