claude-patch

Community-contributed binary patches for Claude Code CLI — unlock hard-coded limitations without waiting for upstream changes.

Disclaimer: This is unofficial and not supported by Anthropic. It modifies the Claude Code binary. Use at your own risk. Keep backups and know how to reinstall Claude Code.

Install

Option A: Agent Skills CLI (works with Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.)

npx skills add huybuidac/claude-code-patchkit -g

The -g flag installs globally (user-level) so the skill is available in all projects. Without it, the skill is only available in the current project.

Option B: Claude Code plugin system

/plugin marketplace add huybuidac/claude-code-patchkit
/plugin install claude-patch

Prerequisites

macOS / Linux:

• macOS arm64 (tested) or x86_64 (expected to work); Linux (untested)
• Python 3
• codesign (macOS only — ships with macOS)

Windows 10/11:

• arm64 (tested) or x64 (expected to work)
• PowerShell 5.1+
• Node.js (LTS) on PATH — required for the bundled binary scanner

Both:

• Claude Code installed as native binary
• Write permission to the Claude binary

Usage

Inside a Claude Code session:

/claude-patch                          # Interactive mode
/claude-patch apply subagent-model     # Apply specific patch
/claude-patch revert subagent-model    # Revert to backup
/claude-patch status                   # Show all patch states

Available Patches

Patch	Description	Risk
subagent-model	Unlock model param on Agent tool — use any model id per-call	Low

How It Works

Claude Code is distributed as a bun-compiled binary with embedded JS bundles. Some behaviors are locked behind hard-coded Zod schemas. This is an Agent Skill — Claude reads the patch definitions and executes the procedure interactively with your confirmation at each step. It applies safe, length-preserving binary patches with:

1. Fingerprint detection — locate exact byte patterns
2. Context guard — verify surrounding stable strings (not minified variables)
3. State detection — determine unpatched / patched / abnormal before acting
4. Backup — always saves <binary>.bak.<timestamp>
5. Length-preserving swap — no offset shifts or blob corruption
6. Re-sign / signature handling — ad-hoc codesign on macOS; on Windows the Authenticode signature becomes HashMismatch (binary still runs)
7. Self-verify — confirm marker count post-patch

Note: the bun-compiled binary embeds the JS bundle 1 or 2 times depending on platform/version (macOS ≤ 2.1.132 = 2, macOS ≥ 2.1.133 = 1, Windows = 1). Patch definitions detect the count dynamically rather than asserting a fixed number.

Windows specifics

claude.exe is locked while running, so apply/revert use a rename-swap pattern:

1. Copy → patch a .patching sidecar at the known offset
2. Rename-Item the live claude.exe to .replacing.<ts> (same-volume rename works on a running .exe)
3. Move-Item the patched copy into place
4. Restart Claude Code to pick up the new binary; clean up *.replacing.* after exit

Safety

• Never patches without explicit user confirmation
• Aborts if fingerprint doesn't match (schema changed in new version)
• Always creates backup before modifying
• Re-applies required per Claude Code update (new binary = clean slate)

Contributing

1. Copy skills/claude-patch/patches/TEMPLATE.md
2. Fill in all sections (fingerprint, context guard, replacement, detection, script)
3. Test on at least 2 Claude Code versions
4. Submit a PR

Requirements

• Length-preserving replacement (old bytes == new bytes in length)
• Unique marker string embedded in replacement for state detection
• Context guard using stable strings (.describe() text, not minified variable names)
• Tested version list

Platform Support

• macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon) — tested
• macOS x86_64 — should work (untested)
• Windows 11 arm64 — tested
• Windows 10/11 x64 — should work (untested)
• Linux — binary layout may differ, contributions welcome

Recovery

• Backups are saved as <binary>.bak.<timestamp> next to the original
• macOS / Linux: cp <binary>.bak.<timestamp> <binary> && codesign --force --sign - <binary> (skip codesign on Linux)
• Windows: stop Claude Code, then use rename-swap — Rename-Item claude.exe claude.exe.broken; Move-Item claude.exe.bak.<ts> claude.exe. The backup retains the original Authenticode signature.
• Clean up Windows *.replacing.* files after Claude Code has exited (they may stay on disk while the old process is still mapped)
• If your .bak size doesn't match the current binary (Claude Code re-bundled within the same version), don't restore — the /claude-patch revert flow will detect this and offer in-place reverse-patch instead.
• To reinstall Claude Code: delete the install dir (~/.local/share/claude/ on Unix, %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\claude.exe on Windows) and re-run the installer

License

MIT