[BUG] Issue: apktool reported as “not found” on Windows 11 / Claude Code even though it is installed and on PATH

[wlndysky]

Issue: apktool reported as “not found” on Windows 11 / Claude Code even though it is installed and on PATH

Summary

On Windows 11, when running apktool-mcp-server from Claude Code (CLI) in stdio mode, MCP tools such as health_check() and decode_apk() fail with:

APKTool not found. Please ensure APKTool is installed and in PATH

This happens even though apktool is correctly installed, apktool.bat is on PATH, and apktool -version works in a normal cmd.exe session.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 (build 10.0.26200.7840)
• Client: Claude Code v2.1.39 (stdio MCP)
• apktool: 3.0.1
  • apktool.bat: E:\path\to\apktool\bin\apktool.bat
  • apktool.jar: E:\path\to\apktool\bin\apktool.jar
• Java: Available on PATH (detected at C:\path\to\java.exe; JAVA_HOME not set)
• uv: C:\Users\<user>\.cargo\bin\uv.exe

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install apktool on Windows as apktool.bat + apktool.jar, and add the directory to PATH.
2. Confirm in a normal terminal:

   where apktool
   apktool -version

   This works and prints 3.0.1.
3. Start apktool-mcp-server via Claude Code MCP (stdio).
4. Call the following MCP tools:
   • health_check()
   • decode_apk(apk_path="C:\\path\\to\\sample.apk", force=true)

Actual Result

• health_check() returns:
  • apktool_available: false
  • apktool_error: "APKTool not found. Please ensure APKTool is installed and in PATH"
• decode_apk() fails with the same error.

Expected Result

• health_check() should return apktool_available: true and report the installed apktool version.
• decode_apk() should successfully decode the APK.

Evidence / Debug Output

Inside the MCP server process:

• shutil.which("apktool") resolves to an apktool.BAT on disk
• PATH includes the directory containing apktool.bat
• PATHEXT includes .BAT

But running:

subprocess.run(["apktool", "--version"], ...)

can still raise:

• FileNotFoundError(2, 'The system cannot find the file specified')

Notes / Root Cause

This appears to be a Windows-specific issue when apktool is installed as a .bat wrapper: the executable is discoverable on PATH, but direct subprocess.run(["apktool", ...]) can fail in this host environment (Claude Code + stdio MCP), leading to a false “apktool not found” error.

Suggested Fix

Make Windows execution more robust for .bat-based apktool installs. Two possible approaches:

Option A: Support an explicit APKTOOL_PATH environment variable

• Read a configurable command/path:

  APKTOOL_CMD = os.environ.get("APKTOOL_PATH", "apktool")

• Use APKTOOL_CMD instead of hardcoding "apktool" in all calls (health check, decode, build, etc.).
• On Windows, users can set:
  • APKTOOL_PATH=E:\path\to\apktool\bin\apktool.bat

Option B: Run apktool through cmd.exe on Windows

• Replace direct calls with:

  ["cmd.exe", "/c", "apktool", "--version"]

  and similarly for decode/build commands.

Either option would prevent the false “apktool not found” error on Windows when apktool is distributed as a .bat wrapper.

[zinja-coder]

Will look into it.

[snow212-cn]

Same problem still exists.

[google-mirror]

Do NOT use Option B since apktool.bat will 'Pause when ran non interactively'

https://github.com/google-mirror/apktool.exe