diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f69e0024..170ca76a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -28,6 +28,16 @@ into `main`, so credit lands at the same moment the fix does.
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- **Windows `exec_shell` preserves MSVC toolchain env** (harvested
+  from PR #1487 by **@Jianfengwu2024**). When the parent shell has
+  already loaded `VsDevCmd` / `vcvars` (Developer Command Prompt,
+  the standard way to run Rust + MSVC on Windows), `exec_shell` was
+  stripping `LIB` / `LIBPATH` / `INCLUDE` and the related VS / SDK /
+  CRT root variables on its way to the child. That made
+  model-driven `cargo build` calls fail to resolve `kernel32.lib`
+  even though `link.exe` was reachable via `PATH`. The allowlist
+  in `child_env.rs` now preserves the 13 MSVC env vars so the
+  toolchain context survives the sanitisation pass.
 - **`code_execution` no longer fails with "program not found" on
   Windows** (and any other host without `python3` on `PATH`). Before
   v0.8.31 the tool hardcoded `python3` and was unconditionally
diff --git a/crates/tui/src/child_env.rs b/crates/tui/src/child_env.rs
index 411fe022..8c389961 100644
--- a/crates/tui/src/child_env.rs
+++ b/crates/tui/src/child_env.rs
@@ -149,6 +149,26 @@ fn is_allowed_parent_env_key(key: &OsStr) -> bool {
             | "USERPROFILE"
             | "HOMEDRIVE"
             | "HOMEPATH"
+            // Preserve Windows toolchain context when the parent shell has
+            // already loaded VsDevCmd / vcvars. Without these, `exec_shell`
+            // can find `link.exe` via PATH but still fail to resolve
+            // SDK/CRT libraries like `kernel32.lib`, so any model-driven
+            // `cargo build` from inside the TUI silently breaks on
+            // Windows installs that don't run inside a Developer Command
+            // Prompt. Harvested from PR #1487.
+            | "LIB"
+            | "LIBPATH"
+            | "INCLUDE"
+            | "VSINSTALLDIR"
+            | "VCINSTALLDIR"
+            | "VCTOOLSINSTALLDIR"
+            | "WINDOWSSDKDIR"
+            | "WINDOWSSDKVERSION"
+            | "UNIVERSALCRTSDKDIR"
+            | "UCRTVERSION"
+            | "EXTENSIONSDKDIR"
+            | "DEVENVDIR"
+            | "VISUALSTUDIOVERSION"
     ) || normalized.starts_with("LC_")
 }
 
@@ -232,7 +252,19 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[test]
     fn mcp_env_allowlist_inherits_base_keys() {
-        for key in ["PATH", "HOME", "USER", "TERM", "LANG", "SHELL"] {
+        for key in [
+            "PATH",
+            "HOME",
+            "USER",
+            "TERM",
+            "LANG",
+            "SHELL",
+            "LIB",
+            "LIBPATH",
+            "INCLUDE",
+            "VCTOOLSINSTALLDIR",
+            "WINDOWSSDKDIR",
+        ] {
             assert!(
                 is_allowed_mcp_env_key(OsStr::new(key)),
                 "MCP allowlist should inherit base key {key}"
@@ -451,4 +483,55 @@ mod tests {
             .map(|(_, value)| value);
         assert_eq!(path, Some(&OsString::from("/explicit/bin")));
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn sanitized_child_env_preserves_windows_toolchain_vars() {
+        let _guard = env_lock().lock().expect("env lock");
+        let prev_lib = std::env::var_os("LIB");
+        let prev_include = std::env::var_os("INCLUDE");
+        let prev_sdk = std::env::var_os("WINDOWSSDKDIR");
+        // SAFETY: serialised by env_lock above. Restoring after the
+        // assertion is also under the same guard so concurrent tests
+        // never see our staged values.
+        unsafe {
+            std::env::set_var("LIB", r"C:\sdk\lib");
+            std::env::set_var("INCLUDE", r"C:\sdk\include");
+            std::env::set_var("WINDOWSSDKDIR", r"C:\sdk");
+        }
+
+        let env = sanitized_child_env(std::iter::empty::<(OsString, OsString)>());
+
+        // Restore prior state before asserting so a panic still leaves
+        // the process env clean for the next test.
+        unsafe {
+            match prev_lib {
+                Some(value) => std::env::set_var("LIB", value),
+                None => std::env::remove_var("LIB"),
+            }
+            match prev_include {
+                Some(value) => std::env::set_var("INCLUDE", value),
+                None => std::env::remove_var("INCLUDE"),
+            }
+            match prev_sdk {
+                Some(value) => std::env::set_var("WINDOWSSDKDIR", value),
+                None => std::env::remove_var("WINDOWSSDKDIR"),
+            }
+        }
+
+        assert!(
+            env.iter()
+                .any(|(key, value)| key == "LIB" && value == r"C:\sdk\lib"),
+            "child env should preserve LIB"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            env.iter()
+                .any(|(key, value)| key == "INCLUDE" && value == r"C:\sdk\include"),
+            "child env should preserve INCLUDE"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            env.iter()
+                .any(|(key, value)| key == "WINDOWSSDKDIR" && value == r"C:\sdk"),
+            "child env should preserve WINDOWSSDKDIR"
+        );
+    }
 }