diff --git a/.claude/scripts/ps-encoded.sh b/.claude/scripts/ps-encoded.sh
index e83345df..66d42390 100644
--- a/.claude/scripts/ps-encoded.sh
+++ b/.claude/scripts/ps-encoded.sh
@@ -38,7 +38,20 @@ read_script() {  # $1 = file path or "-"
 }
 
 encode_b64() {  # stdin: UTF-8 script -> stdout: UTF-16LE base64 (no BOM, no wraps)
-  iconv -f UTF-8 -t UTF-16LE | base64 -w0
+  if command -v iconv >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    iconv -f UTF-8 -t UTF-16LE | base64 -w0
+  else
+    # Git-for-Windows ships the iconv *library* (msys-iconv-2.dll) but NOT iconv.exe,
+    # and has no pacman to install it. Fall back to Python (present fleet-wide) for the
+    # UTF-16LE -> base64 encode. Binary stdin/stdout so no CRLF translation.
+    local py
+    py="$(command -v py || command -v python3 || command -v python || true)"
+    if [ -z "$py" ]; then
+      echo "[ERROR] neither iconv nor python available for UTF-16LE encoding" >&2
+      return 1
+    fi
+    "$py" -c "import sys,base64; sys.stdout.write(base64.b64encode(sys.stdin.buffer.read().decode('utf-8').encode('utf-16-le')).decode())"
+  fi
 }
 
 size_gate() {  # $1 = encoded string, $2 = force flag (0/1)