[FEATURE] Claude Desktop: optional app lock (Touch ID / Windows Hello) on idle and OS lock, like the mobile app, with a managed-settings key to enforce it

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Claude Desktop stays signed in indefinitely, and so do its connectors. An MCP connector's OAuth grant can live for weeks or months, so anyone who reaches an unlocked computer can open Claude and ask it questions against every connected system: email, documents, and in our case a company's data warehouse, with no further check of any kind.

On iPhone this is already solved: the OS lets a user require Face ID to open Claude, so the exposure ends the moment the phone leaves their hand. On desktop there is nothing equivalent:

• Claude Desktop has no app lock, idle lock or re-authentication prompt.
• The enterprise managed settings for Claude Desktop have no key for one (the documented keys cover updates, org login, extensions, local MCP and Cowork only).
• macOS has no native per-app lock, and Windows has none either, so the OS cannot fill the gap the way iOS does.
• The only control left is the whole-machine screen lock, whose timer is often long, and which Claude Desktop itself can defeat on Linux by holding an idle inhibitor (#99362).

We build an MCP connector that gives Claude access to a business's data, and this is now the first question security-minded customers ask: "what stops someone at my colleague's unlocked laptop reading our data through Claude?" Today the honest answer is "nothing in Claude".

Proposed Solution

An optional app lock in Claude Desktop, in Settings under Privacy or Security, mirroring what users already get on mobile:

1. Lock triggers: when the app comes to the foreground after N minutes without interaction (options such as immediately, 1, 5, 15, 60 minutes), and whenever the OS session locks or the machine wakes from sleep.
2. Unlock: Touch ID on macOS, Windows Hello on Windows, with the account password as the fallback.
3. While locked: conversation content is hidden or blurred and no new message can be sent. Work already in flight keeps running: Claude Code sessions, Cowork tasks and scheduled tasks are not interrupted, only new human input is held until unlock.
4. Enterprise enforcement: two managed-settings keys so an admin can require it on managed machines, for example requireAppLock: true and appLockIdleMinutes: 15. Organisations deploying Desktop with connectors to internal systems need to be able to mandate this rather than hope each user turns it on.

Alternative Solutions

• OS screen lock with a short timer. Protects the whole machine but depends on every user configuring it, and many corporate images set 15 to 30 minutes. It also cannot distinguish "walked away" from "reading a long answer".
• Third-party per-app lockers on macOS (Touch ID overlay apps). They give the right trigger, but they are an overlay rather than a security boundary and do not exist for Windows.
• Claude Code hooks. A UserPromptSubmit hook can gate typed prompts behind a biometric check, and one of us built exactly that. It covers Claude Code only; the Desktop chat app exposes no hook point.
• Re-authentication inside the MCP server. We prototyped an idle lock on our server that refuses calls after N minutes and asks for a TOTP code. It works, but the server only sees time since the last tool call, not whether a person has returned to the app, so the window is the whole idle period. It also cannot tell a human-driven call from a scheduled task, so it breaks automation. The trigger belongs in the client, which is the only thing that can see the app being brought to the front.

#53960 asked for a local passcode on Claude Code and was closed as not planned. This request is different: it is for the Desktop app as a whole, it uses the OS biometric rather than a new password, it asks for parity with a protection users already have on mobile, and it includes enterprise enforcement.

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Configuration and settings

Use Case Example

1. An analyst has Claude Desktop connected to the company's data warehouse through an MCP connector, plus Google Drive and email.
2. They step away from their desk for a coffee without locking the screen. The OS lock is set to 20 minutes.
3. A visitor or contractor sits down, opens Claude and types "show me last quarter's revenue by customer and the salaries table".
4. With this feature, Claude Desktop has locked after 5 minutes idle and asks for Touch ID. Nothing is shown and nothing is sent.
5. The analyst comes back, touches the sensor, and continues the conversation exactly where it was.

Additional Context

• Parity reference: iOS "Require Face ID" for an app, available to Claude on iPhone today.
• Comparable desktop apps: Telegram Desktop (local passcode, auto-lock), Signal Desktop (screen lock), 1Password (auto-lock with Touch ID / Windows Hello), most banking and accounting desktop clients.
• Related: #99362 (Desktop holds an idle inhibitor on Linux so the OS auto-lock never fires), #53960 (Code-only local passcode, closed).
• Platform: macOS and Windows, Claude Desktop (chat, Cowork and Code tabs share the one signed-in app).