[BUG] Claude Desktop "Public Share" URLs return 403 when fetched by Claude Code

Status Closed — not planned
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 4 comments · opened Feb 26, 2026 · closed Mar 26, 2026

Description

Public share links generated from the Claude Desktop app return HTTP 403 (Forbidden) when Claude Code tries to fetch them via WebFetch. This breaks a natural workflow: sharing a conversation from the Desktop app and then having Claude Code read/reference it.

Reproduction Steps

  1. Open a conversation in the Claude Desktop app
  2. Use the "Share" feature to generate a public link (e.g., https://claude.ai/share/<id>)
  3. In Claude Code, ask it to fetch the shared URL
  4. Claude Code's WebFetch tool returns 403 Forbidden

Example

$ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://claude.ai/share/4b3a1a9d-4f5a-4ca6-ba4f-76ffc3f29971
403

Expected Behavior

Claude Code should be able to read public share links so users can reference Desktop app conversations as context — e.g., "continue this work" or "review what I discussed here."

Actual Behavior

The server blocks non-browser requests with a 403, likely via user-agent filtering or a JS challenge. The link works in a browser but is inaccessible to Claude Code.

Why This Matters

Sharing context between the Desktop app and Claude Code is a frequently requested workflow (see #13843, #18803, #28307). Public share links could already serve as a lightweight bridge, but the 403 block prevents it.

Environment

  • Claude Desktop (macOS)
  • Claude Code (CLI)

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