Claude in Chrome: Service worker idle timeout breaks autonomous/agentic workflows

Summary

The Claude in Chrome extension's service worker times out after ~30 seconds of idle, disconnecting the browser automation session. While interactive use survives (user can manually refresh), this breaks autonomous "fire and forget" workflows where Claude runs multi-step test loops without human intervention.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.0.x
• Chrome: Latest stable
• OS: macOS
• Extension: Claude in Chrome (latest)

Symptoms

• Browser automation works initially
• After ~30 seconds of no browser tool calls, connection silently drops
• Next mcp__claude-in-chrome__* call fails
• Manual page refresh (Cmd+R) re-establishes connection
• MCP server itself stays running (no session restart needed)

Root Cause

Chrome Manifest V3 service workers terminate after 30 seconds of idle. The extension doesn't implement a keepalive mechanism to prevent this.

Reference: Chrome Extension Service Worker Lifecycle

Impact

Interactive use (human watching): Minor annoyance - user refreshes page

Autonomous/agentic use: Blocker - If Claude is running a 10-minute test loop (e.g., "implement feature X, test in browser, iterate until passing"), the connection dies mid-execution with no human to recover it. This undermines the core value proposition of browser automation for:

• Autonomous E2E testing
• Iterative UI development loops
• CI/test scenarios
• Any "fire and forget" workflow

Suggested Fix

Implement one of the documented keepalive patterns:

1. Chrome API heartbeat - Periodically call chrome.runtime.getPlatformInfo() every ~25 seconds to reset idle timer
2. Offscreen document ping (Chrome 109+) - Create offscreen doc that pings service worker
3. WebSocket keepalive (Chrome 116+) - Active WebSockets extend service worker lifetime

Reference: Manifest V3 Service Worker Timeout Workarounds

Related Issues

• #14590 - Inconsistent Chrome extension integration state (closed as duplicate)
• #14531 - Claude in Chrome tool not available despite extension installed

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Reported by PX (Prodomatix) - ImaginAIria Production Guardian 🛡️