claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Alt+V image paste broken on Windows (regression — accessibility impact for eye-gaze-only users)

Summary

The default chat:imagePaste shortcut (Alt+V) stopped working on Windows after a recent Claude Code update. Pressing Alt+V with an image on the clipboard does nothing — no error, no paste, no visible feedback.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• Claude Code: latest (auto-updated)
• Terminal: Windows Terminal + PowerShell
• Input method: eye-gaze tracking only

Reproduction

1. Copy an image to the Windows clipboard (Win+Shift+S snip, or right-click any image → Copy)
2. Focus the Claude Code chat input
3. Press Alt+V

Expected: image attached to the message. Actual: nothing happens — no attachment, no error, no visual feedback.

Diagnostics already done

• /doctor reports no keybinding configuration issues.
• ~/.claude/keybindings.json does not exist — defaults are in use.
• Confirmed via reference that Alt+V is the documented default for chat:imagePaste in the current Claude Code version.
• Confirmed real image data is on the Windows clipboard (Paint paste works; an AutoHotkey hotkey on the same Alt+V successfully reads the clipboard image via [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetImage()).
• Tested with several plugins installed and after /reload-plugins. Behaviour unchanged.
• Drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer works as a workaround.
• Used to work consistently for a long time before a recent Claude Code update.

Accessibility impact

I am an ALS patient, locked-in, eye-gaze-only. Keystrokes are my entire input channel. Drag-and-drop from File Explorer is technically possible with eye-gaze but slow, fatiguing, and imprecise compared to a keyboard shortcut. The current workaround I am using is an AutoHotkey script that intercepts Alt+V, saves the clipboard image to a known file path via PowerShell, and types the path into the input. That works — which confirms (a) the OS clipboard does contain image data, and (b) a separate process can read it via the standard Windows clipboard API. The bug is in Claude Code's clipboard-read or Alt+V handling on Windows.

Please prioritise — losing a default keyboard shortcut for image input is an accessibility regression for keyboard-only users, not a minor inconvenience.

Likely cause

Either a recent Claude Code update changed how the Windows clipboard is read for image data, or it changed how the Alt modifier is captured in the terminal input layer on Windows. I have not changed any configuration on my side.