You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
1Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
WindowsArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.283,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
When Claude runs a PowerShell command that launches cmd.exe (Windows' older command prompt), for example cmd /c rd /s ..., Claude Code now checks what that inner command deletes. The check blocks the command when it would remove a protected path: a drive root, a folder directly under a drive root, or the home folder.
It covers the delete commands rd, rmdir, del and erase started through cmd /c, cmd /k or cmd /r.
It reads the command line the way cmd.exe would, including carets, quotes, --%, nested start and cmd calls, and folder changes made with cd or pushd earlier on the same line.
It checks each target again after expanding cmd's %NAME% variables and PowerShell's $var variables.
Setting the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_POWERSHELL_CMD_RM_DENY turns the check off. The variable was also added to two lists of environment variables Claude Code recognises.
The rule also stands aside when the server-delivered flag tengu_curious_lake comes back explicitly false.
Why
Claude Code already guarded against deleting these paths, but a destructive cmd /c rd /s wrapped in PowerShell could get past those protections. The new check closes that gap on Windows and applies unless someone turns it off.
Read from
Feature flag
tengu_curious_lakeNot enough to say
Nothing here resolved what this flag was doing on this version, so nothing here should be read as on or off.
This account: no value returned · anonymous baseline: no value returned · compiled default in v2.1.283: on
These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtIt is not clear whether this check runs only for PowerShell commands or in other places too.
Anthropic's release notes agreeWindows: Fixed the PowerShell tool letting cmd /c rd, rmdir, del or erase delete drive roots, the home folder and other folders that…
