[BUG] Closing Claude Desktop kills shared CoworkVMService, breaking all running Claude Code CLI sessions

Description

Closing Claude Desktop terminates the shared CoworkVMService, which causes all concurrently running Claude Code CLI sessions to lose connection and become unresponsive. Users must restart every CLI session after closing Desktop.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26100
• Claude Desktop: v1.1.4173 (MSIX/Windows Store)
• SDK: v2.1.51
• Hardware: Intel i9-14900HX, 32GB RAM

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have Claude Desktop running with an active local agent session
2. Separately have one or more Claude Code CLI sessions running
3. Close Claude Desktop
4. Observe that all CLI sessions immediately stop responding

Evidence from Logs

The main.log shows the following errors in clusters, corresponding to Desktop shutdown events:

• sdk-daemon not connected — 33 occurrences across multiple sessions
• failed to write length/data: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine — 14 occurrences
• ProcessTransport is not ready for writing — 16 occurrences (burst on 2026-02-23 23:17:57)
• VM service not running. The service failed to start. — 72 Sentry errors (Feb 11, 14)

These all correlate with Desktop being closed, which takes the VM service down with it.

Expected Behavior

Closing Claude Desktop should not terminate the shared VM service if other Claude Code CLI sessions are still actively using it. The VM service lifecycle should be reference-counted or managed independently.

Actual Behavior

Claude Desktop acts as the "owner" of the VM service and terminates it on quit, regardless of whether other consumers exist.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code