diff --git a/hooks/hooks.json b/hooks/hooks.json
index 79d8cee3..67975137 100644
--- a/hooks/hooks.json
+++ b/hooks/hooks.json
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
           {
             "type": "command",
             "command": "\"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/run-hook.cmd\" session-start",
+            "shell": "bash",
             "async": false
           }
         ]
diff --git a/tests/hooks/test-session-start.sh b/tests/hooks/test-session-start.sh
index b027f3c6..c1508290 100755
--- a/tests/hooks/test-session-start.sh
+++ b/tests/hooks/test-session-start.sh
@@ -143,6 +143,27 @@ for (const forbiddenText of forbiddenTexts) {
 
 echo "SessionStart hook output tests"
 
+# Registration shape: the hook must declare shell:"bash" so Claude Code on
+# Windows dispatches via Git Bash (or fails with an actionable error) instead
+# of PowerShell/cmd.exe, whose parsers break on the quoted command string
+# (PowerShell ParserError; cmd.exe quote-stripping on paths with metacharacters).
+if node -e '
+const hooks = JSON.parse(require("fs").readFileSync(process.argv[1], "utf8"));
+const entry = hooks.hooks.SessionStart[0].hooks[0];
+if (entry.shell !== "bash") {
+  console.error(`SessionStart hook shell is ${JSON.stringify(entry.shell)}, expected "bash"`);
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+if (!/run-hook\.cmd" session-start$/.test(entry.command)) {
+  console.error(`unexpected SessionStart command shape: ${entry.command}`);
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+' "$REPO_ROOT/hooks/hooks.json"; then
+    pass "hooks.json registers SessionStart with shell:bash dispatch"
+else
+    fail "hooks.json registers SessionStart with shell:bash dispatch"
+fi
+
 claude_home="$(make_home claude-code)"
 assert_command_output \
     "Claude Code emits nested SessionStart additionalContext" \