Claude Code WSL2

Problem

Claude Code opens links (e.g. OAuth login, documentation) using Chromium inside WSL2 by default. On a WSL2 setup you almost certainly want links to open in your existing Windows browser instead.

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How It Works

Set the BROWSER environment variable to the path of your Windows browser executable under /mnt/c/.... Claude Code and many Linux tools read BROWSER to decide which program to launch for URLs.

Some CLI tools ignore BROWSER and delegate to xdg-open instead. For those tools, register the same Windows browser as WSL's HTTP/HTTPS MIME handler.

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Setup

Add to ~/.bashrc:

export BROWSER="/mnt/c/Users/<YourUsername>/AppData/Local/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Application/brave.exe"

Replace the path with your browser of choice. Common paths:

Browser	Path
Brave	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
Chrome	C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
Edge	C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe
Firefox	C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe

Then reload your shell:

source ~/.bashrc

These commands target Ubuntu's default bash; if you use zsh, use ~/.zshrc instead.

XDG fallback for OAuth and CLI tools

First check whether WSL still points to another browser:

xdg-settings get default-web-browser
xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/https

If it does, create ~/.local/share/applications/brave-windows.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Brave Browser (Windows)
Comment=Open web links in the Windows Brave profile
Exec=/mnt/c/Users/<YourUsername>/AppData/Local/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Application/brave.exe %U
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
StartupNotify=false

Register it as the URL handler:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
xdg-mime default brave-windows.desktop x-scheme-handler/http
xdg-mime default brave-windows.desktop x-scheme-handler/https

Replace <YourUsername> with the Windows username and adjust Exec when using a different browser. Desktop entries do not expand $BROWSER, so Exec must contain the real executable path.

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Result

Claude Code and tools that respect BROWSER open URLs directly in the selected Windows browser. Tools that use xdg-open, including some OAuth CLIs, use the XDG fallback and reach the same browser profile.

Playwright CLI is intentionally unaffected: it launches an isolated automation browser unless explicitly attached to an existing browser through CDP.

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Troubleshooting

Browser doesn't open

• Confirm the .exe path is correct: ls "/mnt/c/Users/<user>/AppData/..."
• Test manually: $BROWSER "https://example.com"

Wrong browser still opens

• Make sure source ~/.bashrc was run in the current session after editing.
• Check no other config is overriding BROWSER: echo $BROWSER
• Check both XDG handlers: xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/{http,https}
• Confirm the desktop entry exists: test -f ~/.local/share/applications/brave-windows.desktop