agent-signals

047. Where the Windows installs keep their version

View as Markdown Open in Claude Open in ChatGPT
Date
2026-10-30
Agents
Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor CLI, opencode, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, Qwen Code, Amp, Crush, Kimi Code CLI, Continue CLI, Factory Droid, Cline CLI, Kilo Code CLI, Auggie
Measured on
CI runner windows-2022 (Windows NT 10.0.20348, x64), CI runner windows-2025 (10.0.26100, x64) and CI runner windows-11-arm (10.0.26200, arm64)

Measured

2026-10-30, the scenario scenarios/windows-installs.ps1 in the scenarios workflow (run 41137353062, and again in run 41138908257). The workflow installed each agent, then the scenario ran Get-Command <cmd> -All and <cmd> --version, read package.json, and listed the install folder. It started no agent interactively.

Agent Command Version Install
Claude Code claude 2.1.314 npm @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Codex CLI codex 0.166.0 npm @openai/codex
opencode opencode 1.19.5 npm opencode-ai
Gemini CLI gemini 0.66.0 npm @google/gemini-cli
GitHub Copilot CLI copilot 1.0.105 npm @github/copilot
Qwen Code qwen 0.26.4 npm @qwen-code/qwen-code
Amp amp 0.0.1793390435-g08e9ec npm @ampcode/cli
Crush crush v0.99.0 npm @charmland/crush
Continue CLI cn 1.5.47 npm @continuedev/cli
Factory Droid droid 1.0.0 npm @factory/cli
Cline CLI cline 3.0.74 npm cline
Kilo Code CLI kilo 7.8.18 npm @kilocode/cli
Auggie auggie 0.36.0 npm @augmentcode/auggie
Cursor CLI agent, cursor-agent 2026.10.22-27dcf5f irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex
Kimi Code CLI kimi 2.4.1 irm https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.ps1 | iex

Node.js 22.23.4 and npm 10.9.9 (from actions/setup-node).

Measured on: CI runner windows-2022 (Windows NT 10.0.20348, x64), CI runner windows-2025 (10.0.26100, x64) and CI runner windows-11-arm (10.0.26200, arm64). The two x64 images gave the same layout. Fact 48 gives the arm64 differences.

What was measured

  1. The npm prefix on all three images is C:\npm\prefix. For each npm agent, npm writes three shims there: <cmd>.ps1, <cmd>.cmd and <cmd> with no extension. Get-Command <cmd> -All lists them in this order: ExternalScript <cmd>.ps1, Application <cmd>.cmd, Application <cmd>. None of the npm paths holds the version. The version is in C:\npm\prefix\node_modules\<package>\package.json, and on the x64 images it was the same as --version for each npm agent.
  2. The shims point to one of three kinds of target:
    • A native .exe in the main package: Claude Code (@anthropic-ai\claude-code\bin\claude.exe), opencode (opencode-ai\bin\opencode.exe) and Amp (@ampcode\cli\bin\amp.exe). The same file is also in a platform package, for example @anthropic-ai\claude-code-win32-x64\claude.exe, opencode-windows-x64\bin\opencode.exe and opencode-windows-x64-baseline\bin\opencode.exe.
    • A JavaScript launcher that starts a native .exe from a platform package: Codex CLI (bin\codex.js to @openai\codex-win32-x64\vendor\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\bin\codex.exe, next to codex-code-mode-host.exe, codex-path\rg.exe and codex-resources\codex-command-runner.exe), Copilot CLI (npm-loader.js to @github\copilot-win32-x64\copilot.exe), Crush (run-crush.js to @charmland\crush\bin\crush.exe), Factory Droid (bin\droid to @factory\cli-win32-x64\bin\droid.exe), Cline CLI (bin\cline to @cline\cli-windows-x64\bin\cline.exe) and Kilo Code CLI (bin\kilo to @kilocode\cli-windows-x64\bin\kilo.exe).
    • JavaScript that runs in node.exe: Gemini CLI (bundle\gemini.js), Qwen Code (cli-entry.js), Continue CLI (dist\cn.js) and Auggie (augment.mjs).
  3. The file version of a native .exe is not the agent version. copilot.exe had 1.0.105 and claude.exe had 2.1.314.0 (run 41138908257), the agent versions. opencode.exe, amp.exe, droid.exe and kilo.exe all had 1.4.4. cline.exe had 1.4.2. codex.exe and crush.exe had no file version.
  4. Cursor CLI installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\cursor-agent, and the installer adds that folder to the user PATH. The folder holds agent.cmd, agent.ps1, cursor-agent.cmd and cursor-agent.ps1, and versions\<version>\ with node.exe, rg.exe, crepectl.exe, cursorsandbox.exe, node_sqlite3.node, node_modules\ and a .running\ folder. versions\promote-staged.cmd is next to the version folders. The version is the name of the folder versions\2026.10.22-27dcf5f, the same as --version.
  5. Kimi Code CLI installs one file, %USERPROFILE%\.kimi-code\bin\kimi.exe, and a file region in .kimi-code. No path holds the version. Only kimi --version gave it.
  6. --version makes files for some agents. After the calls, these folders were new: .codex, .cursor, .gemini, %LOCALAPPDATA%\copilot and %LOCALAPPDATA%\cursor-compile-cache (the first group of agents), and .cline, .continue, .cache, .config, .local, %LOCALAPPDATA%\amp and %LOCALAPPDATA%\kimi-code (the second group).

Mechanism

A tool that wants the version of a running agent on Windows can read it from the path only for Cursor CLI. For an npm agent, it can go from the process image (for example codex.exe in a platform package) up to the node_modules\<package> folder of the main package and read package.json. For Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, Continue CLI and Auggie, the process image is node.exe, so the tool must read the command line of the process to find the package.

Incident

None. This answers request 13 of aw (where the Windows installs keep their version).

Screens

None. The output is in the logs of the runs.

Not measured