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Troubleshooting

Symptom Fix
"claude.exe not found" screen on startup Install Claude Code, or set the path in ⚙ Settings
Generated files don't open in an editor Set your editor path in ⚙ Settings (auto-detects Notepad++, VS Code, falls back to Notepad)
Window closes instantly with an error Check %TEMP%\claudectl_crash.log — the crash handler writes the traceback there
Projects missing from the list The project folder was moved/deleted, or the path can't be decoded — see Session encoding
Wrong account / want a second account Set Config dir in ⚙ Settings to that account's CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR (e.g. ~/.claude-work). Drives both session browsing and the env handed to claude at launch. Blank = default ~/.claude. Restart claudectl to apply. See Multiple accounts for running two at once.
Settings location ~/.claude/claudectl.json — safe to edit by hand or delete to reset (always read from ~/.claude, independent of Config dir)
Usage stats look stale Delete ~/.claude/claudectl-stats-cache.json — it rebuilds on the next scan
GUI window tears or flickers Set stage: lite in Settings first; if it persists, stage: off, or launch with QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS=--disable-gpu-compositing
OmniRoute free execution not working See the Plan → Execute troubleshooting section
Something failed and said nothing Open ⚙ Logs (TUI) or the Logs page (GUI). Background jobs, the auto-memory scheduler and claudectl's own Claude calls all record their failures there
"No output from Claude" when generating an agent / skill / CLAUDE.md Usually the account's limit. claudectl now says so by name and offers another account — see Rate limits and a second account
An AI feature refuses to run The active account's session or weekly window is full. Pick another account when asked, set headless_quota to auto, or to off to launch regardless

Where the logs are

File What it holds
~/.claude/claudectl-events.jsonl Start here. claudectl's own events — failed Claude calls with what claude actually printed, job crashes, scheduler passes, quarantined state files. Capped at 256 KB. Shown by the Logs screen in both interfaces
%TEMP%\claudectl_crash.log The traceback when the window closes instantly
%TEMP%\claudectl.log Verbose DEBUG tracing — only written when CLAUDECTL_DEBUG=1 is set. Unbounded; turn it on for one run
~/.claude/failover.log The local failover proxy's requests, when it is running

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