Windows & WSL Setup

How it works

Anchor/Solana's build toolchain doesn't run natively on Windows — even the official Anchor CLI requires WSL. bake auto-detects native Windows and transparently relays toolchain-dependent commands through WSL.

You don't need to manually bridge shells. Just run bake from PowerShell or Command Prompt:

bake deploy

bake detects process.platform === 'win32' and automatically relays through:

wsl -d Ubuntu -e bash -lc "..."

Prerequisites

1. Windows 10/11 with WSL 2 enabled
2. Ubuntu distribution installed in WSL
3. Toolchain installed inside WSL (not on Windows):
   • Rust
   • Solana CLI (Agave)
   • Anchor CLI

Setting up WSL

Enable WSL 2

wsl --install

Restart your computer, then install Ubuntu:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

Install toolchain inside WSL

Open Ubuntu from the Start menu and run:

# Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env

# Solana CLI
sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.anza.xyz/stable/install)"

# Anchor
cargo install --git https://github.com/coral-xyz/anchor avm --locked --force
avm install 1.2.0
avm use 1.2.0

Verify

# Inside WSL Ubuntu
which anchor
which solana

Both should resolve to Linux paths (not /mnt/c/...).

Common issues

PATH interop problem

If which node inside WSL resolves to /mnt/c/..., WSL is using Windows-side Node.js. Fix:

1. Edit /etc/wsl.conf inside WSL:
   ini

   [interop]
   appendWindowsPath = false

2. Restart WSL:
   powershell

   wsl --shutdown

3. Reopen Ubuntu and verify:
   bash

   which node  # Should be /usr/bin/node or similar

Platform mismatch errors

If you see errors about @esbuild/win32-x64 vs @esbuild/linux-x64, you ran npm install from the wrong environment. Fix:

# Inside WSL
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

Verify with bake doctor

bake doctor

This checks your WSL setup and reports any issues.

Non-WSL commands

These commands work natively on Windows without WSL relay:

• bake login
• bake use
• bake whoami
• bake stats
• bake logs
• bake decode