›_ Claude Code Issues
Claude Code Issues / #23991

[BUG]

Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Feb 7, 2026 by samuelpncook Closed Feb 13, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
  • [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
  • [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

[BUG] Cowork VM fails with "ensure user should already exist but does not" — reproducible across fresh sessions

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
  • [x] This is a single bug report
  • [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Desktop

Environment

  • Platform: macOS (MacBook Air, Apple Silicon)
  • App: Claude Desktop (latest version as of Feb 7, 2026)
  • Plan: Max
  • Cowork tab: Visible and functional (workspace setup initiates)

What's Wrong?

Cowork consistently fails during workspace setup with an RPC error indicating the VM user's home directory does not exist. This occurs 100% of the time, across completely fresh sessions, even after full cache clearing and sign-out/sign-in.

The workspace setup progress bar begins (reaches ~17–20%) and then fails with:

RPC error: ensure user: user <session-name> should already exist but does not, 
and recovery failed: home directory /sessions/<session-name> does not exist: 
stat /sessions/<session-name>: no such file or directory

This has been reproduced with two different session identities, confirming the issue is not tied to a specific stale session:

  • dreamy-modest-dirac
  • youthful-practical-planck

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Claude Desktop on macOS
  2. Switch to the Cowork tab
  3. Workspace setup begins ("Setting up Claude's workspace..." with progress bar)
  4. Progress reaches ~17–20%
  5. Fails with the RPC error above

What I've Tried (None Resolved the Issue)

  1. Cleared all local caches:

``bash
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Code\ Cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/vm_bundles
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/sessions
``

  1. Force-killed all Claude processes:

``bash
pkill -9 -f Claude
``

  1. Signed out and signed back in to force a new session identity
  1. Repeated the full cleanup + sign-out cycle — second attempt failed with a different session name but identical error

Expected Behavior

Cowork should successfully provision the VM workspace and allow task execution.

Actual Behavior

The VM backend fails to create or locate the user's home directory (/sessions/<session-name>), and recovery also fails. This appears to be a server-side VM provisioning issue, as all local cleanup steps have no effect.

Additional Context

  • Regular Chat mode works perfectly — this is Cowork-specific
  • The error suggests the backend expects the user directory to already exist but it was never created
  • No VPN or proxy software is running
  • Network connectivity to api.anthropic.com is confirmed working
  • Prior to the RPC error, other connection errors were observed (ECONNRESET, ERR_QUIC_PROTOCOL_ERROR) which may or may not be related

What Should Happen?

Cowork should successfully provision the VM workspace and allow task execution.

Error Messages/Logs

RPC error: ensure user: user <session-name> should already exist but does not, 
and recovery failed: home directory /sessions/<session-name> does not exist: 
stat /sessions/<session-name>: no such file or directory


This has been reproduced with two different session identities, confirming the issue is not tied to a specific stale session:

- `dreamy-modest-dirac`
- `youthful-practical-planck`

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Claude Desktop on macOS
  2. Switch to the Cowork tab
  3. Workspace setup begins ("Setting up Claude's workspace..." with progress bar)
  4. Progress reaches ~17–20%
  5. Fails with the RPC error above

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

N/A — Claude Desktop Cowork only (not using Claude Code CLI)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

[BUG] Cowork VM fails with "ensure user should already exist but does not" — reproducible across fresh sessions

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
  • [x] This is a single bug report
  • [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Desktop

Environment

  • Platform: macOS (MacBook Air, Apple Silicon)
  • App: Claude Desktop (latest version as of Feb 7, 2026)
  • Plan: Max
  • Cowork tab: Visible and functional (workspace setup initiates)

What's Wrong?

Cowork consistently fails during workspace setup with an RPC error indicating the VM user's home directory does not exist. This occurs 100% of the time, across completely fresh sessions, even after full cache clearing and sign-out/sign-in.

The workspace setup progress bar begins (reaches ~17–20%) and then fails with:

RPC error: ensure user: user <session-name> should already exist but does not, 
and recovery failed: home directory /sessions/<session-name> does not exist: 
stat /sessions/<session-name>: no such file or directory

This has been reproduced with two different session identities, confirming the issue is not tied to a specific stale session:

  • dreamy-modest-dirac
  • youthful-practical-planck

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Claude Desktop on macOS
  2. Switch to the Cowork tab
  3. Workspace setup begins ("Setting up Claude's workspace..." with progress bar)
  4. Progress reaches ~17–20%
  5. Fails with the RPC error above

What I've Tried (None Resolved the Issue)

  1. Cleared all local caches:

``bash
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Code\ Cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/vm_bundles
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/sessions
``

  1. Force-killed all Claude processes:

``bash
pkill -9 -f Claude
``

  1. Signed out and signed back in to force a new session identity
  1. Repeated the full cleanup + sign-out cycle — second attempt failed with a different session name but identical error

Expected Behavior

Cowork should successfully provision the VM workspace and allow task execution.

Actual Behavior

The VM backend fails to create or locate the user's home directory (/sessions/<session-name>), and recovery also fails. This appears to be a server-side VM provisioning issue, as all local cleanup steps have no effect.

Additional Context

  • Regular Chat mode works perfectly — this is Cowork-specific
  • The error suggests the backend expects the user directory to already exist but it was never created
  • No VPN or proxy software is running
  • Network connectivity to api.anthropic.com is confirmed working
  • Prior to the RPC error, other connection errors were observed (ECONNRESET, ERR_QUIC_PROTOCOL_ERROR) which may or may not be related

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