[BUG] Cowork runtime (claude-code-vm) missing from macOS app bundle — "workspace wasn't installed properly"

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?

Environment

• OS: macOS
• Claude Desktop version: 1.1.5368 (d12d02)
• Installed from: claude.ai/download

Description
Cowork consistently fails with "Failed to start Claude's workspace — workspace wasn't installed properly / Download failed. Check your internet connection and try again." The error persists after multiple reinstalls and manually deleting the VM bundle.

Root cause identified
After extensive troubleshooting, the Cowork runtime binary is completely absent from the app bundle. Specifically:

• /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/ contains only the Claude binary — no Cowork-related executables
• /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/ contains no Cowork or claude-code-vm modules
• ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-vm/2.1.63/ directory exists but is completely empty — the runtime was never extracted
• ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/vm_bundles/claudevm.bundle/ contains rootfs.img (10GB) and rootfs.img.zst (2GB) — the VM image downloaded successfully

The VM bundle downloads fine, but the runtime needed to launch it is missing from the distributed app.

Steps to reproduce

1. Download and install Claude Desktop v1.1.5368 from claude.ai/download on macOS
2. Open Cowork tab
3. Observe "workspace wasn't installed properly" error
4. Run: find /Applications/Claude.app -name "claude-code-vm*" — returns nothing
5. Run: ls /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/ | grep -i cowork — returns nothing

What I tried

• Multiple reinstalls of Claude Desktop
• Manually deleting vm_bundles: rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/vm_bundles/claudevm.bundle
• Checked Privacy & Security settings — no blocked items
• Verified internet connectivity — Google Cloud Storage and api.anthropic.com both reachable
• Disabled VPN

Expected behavior
The Cowork runtime should be present in the app bundle and the workspace should start successfully.

Conclusion
This appears to be a packaging issue where the macOS build distributed at claude.ai/download is missing the Cowork runtime binaries entirely.

What Should Happen?

The Cowork runtime should be present in the app bundle and the workspace should start successfully.

Error Messages/Logs

Failed to start Claude's workspace
Download failed. Check your internet connection and try again.

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to reproduce

1. Download and install Claude Desktop v1.1.5368 from claude.ai/download on macOS
2. Open Cowork tab
3. Observe "workspace wasn't installed properly" error
4. Run: find /Applications/Claude.app -name "claude-code-vm*" — returns nothing
5. Run: ls /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/ | grep -i cowork — returns nothing

Claude Model

Not sure / Multiple models

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.1.5368 (d12d02)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_