[BUG] Cowork scheduled tasks don't fire unless Cowork view is actively focused

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?

Scheduled tasks created in Cowork mode don't fire at their scheduled time if the Claude desktop app is open but on a different view (e.g. regular chat). The task only executes once the user manually clicks into the Cowork tab/view.

Example: a cron task scheduled for 3:00 PM fired at ~4:20 PM, only after manually switching to Cowork.

What Should Happen?

Scheduled tasks should fire as long as the Claude desktop app is running, regardless of which view (Chat, Cowork, etc.) is currently active.

Error Messages/Logs

No error messages — the task silently waits and only triggers when the Cowork view becomes active. The task's lastRunAt timestamp shows it fired ~1h20m after the scheduled cron time.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a scheduled task in Cowork with a cron expression (e.g. 0 15 * * 1-5 for 3 PM weekdays)
2. At the scheduled time, have the Claude desktop app open but on a regular chat view (not Cowork)
3. Observe that the task does not fire at the scheduled time
4. Click into the Cowork view
5. The task fires immediately upon entering Cowork

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Desktop (Cowork mode) — latest version as of March 19, 2026

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

This is specific to Cowork mode's scheduled tasks feature. The Claude desktop app was open (on a regular chat view), but the scheduled task only fired once the user clicked into the Cowork view. It appears the Cowork task scheduler requires the Cowork session to be actively focused, not just the Claude app running.

Task config:

• cronExpression: "0 15 0,1-5" (3 PM daily, Sun-Fri)
• Scheduled fire time (with jitter): ~08:09 UTC
• Actual lastRunAt: 09:20 UTC (~1h12m late, only after clicking into Cowork)