diff --git a/scripts/code-agent-host.js b/scripts/code-agent-host.js
index f91eda13784..c618870e396 100644
--- a/scripts/code-agent-host.js
+++ b/scripts/code-agent-host.js
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ function startServer(programArgs) {
 			'out',
 			'vs',
 			'platform',
-			'agent',
+			'agentHost',
 			'node',
 			'agentHostServerMain.js',
 		);
diff --git a/src/vs/platform/agentHost/node/agentHostServerMain.ts b/src/vs/platform/agentHost/node/agentHostServerMain.ts
index a265d4a9dc4..c3aa5180481 100644
--- a/src/vs/platform/agentHost/node/agentHostServerMain.ts
+++ b/src/vs/platform/agentHost/node/agentHostServerMain.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@
 // Standalone agent host server with WebSocket protocol transport.
 // Start with: node out/vs/platform/agentHost/node/agentHostServerMain.js [--port <port>] [--enable-mock-agent]
 
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
+
+// This standalone process isn't bootstrapped via bootstrap-esm.ts, so we must
+// set _VSCODE_FILE_ROOT ourselves so that FileAccess can resolve module paths.
+// This file lives at out/vs/platform/agentHost/node/ - the root is `out/`.
+globalThis._VSCODE_FILE_ROOT = fileURLToPath(new URL('../../../..', import.meta.url));
+
 import { DisposableStore } from '../../../base/common/lifecycle.js';
 import { URI } from '../../../base/common/uri.js';
 import { localize } from '../../../nls.js';