PowerShell Tool gives Claude first-class shell access on Windows without fighting cmd.exe or relying on WSL.

What it does

The tool runs PowerShell commands - cmdlets, scripts, pipelines - inside the session's working directory. It's the preferred shell on Windows and is available opt-in on macOS and Linux if you have PowerShell Core installed. Output is captured the same way the Bash tool handles it.

When to use it

Windows-first development where PowerShell is native.
Tasks involving .NET, Azure CLI, or other PowerShell-friendly tooling.
Cross-platform scripts written in PowerShell.
Avoiding POSIX-ism mismatches when Claude tries Unix-style commands on Windows.

Gotchas

PowerShell Tool is preview on Windows - expect rough edges on obscure cmdlets.
Execution policy may block scripts. Set it explicitly in your session if needed.
Pipeline output differs from Bash - objects versus text - so don't assume awk/sed-style post-processing works.

Official docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/tools-reference.md#powershell-tool