[BUG] [Cowork] sandbox.network.allowedDomains ignored — external APIs blocked (api.zotero.org, crossref.org, etc.)

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?

Summary

In Cowork mode, the sandbox proxy blocks all external API calls that are not on Anthropic's managed allowlist. Project-level sandbox.network.allowedDomains settings are completely ignored, making it impossible for users to add domains they need (e.g. Zotero, CrossRef, OpenAlex).

Environment

• Product: Claude Cowork (desktop app)
• VM: Linux (Ubuntu 22, bubblewrap sandbox)
• Network: only loopback interface (127.0.0.1), all traffic via socat proxies on :3128 (HTTP) and :1080 (SOCKS5)

Reproduction

Any outbound API call to a domain not in Anthropic's managed allowlist fails with:

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
X-Proxy-Error: blocked-by-allowlist

Example:

curl -v --proxy "http://localhost:3128" "https://api.zotero.org/users/.../items"
# → HTTP 403 — X-Proxy-Error: blocked-by-allowlist

What I tried

Created .claude/settings.json in the project with:

{
  "sandbox": {
    "network": {
      "allowedDomains": ["api.zotero.org", "*.zotero.org"]
    }
  }
}

→ No effect. The proxy still returns 403.

This is consistent with allowManagedDomainsOnly: true being set in Cowork's managed settings, which per the docs causes "Domains from user, project, and local settings are [to be] ignored."

Domains currently blocked (confirmed)

| Domain | Status |
|---|---|
| api.zotero.org | ❌ 403 blocked |
| crossref.org | ❌ 403 blocked |
| openalex.org | ❌ 403 blocked |
| semanticscholar.org | ❌ 403 blocked |
| api.github.com | ❌ 403 blocked |
| unpaywall.org | ❌ 403 blocked |

Domains that work

| Domain | Status |
|---|---|
| github.com | ✅ 200 |
| pypi.org | ✅ 200 |
| api.anthropic.com | ✅ accessible |

What Should Happen?

Respect project/user allowedDomains (preferred)

When a user adds domains to sandbox.network.allowedDomains in their project
.claude/settings.json, those domains should be reachable from the Cowork VM,
exactly as they are in standard Claude Code.

// .claude/settings.json
{
  "sandbox": {
    "network": {
      "allowedDomains": ["api.zotero.org", "crossref.org"]
    }
  }
}

After adding this file, curl https://api.zotero.org/... should succeed instead
of returning 403 blocked-by-allowlist.

In standard Claude Code, this already works: accessing a new domain triggers a
user-facing prompt ("Allow api.zotero.org?"), and the user can permanently allow
it. Cowork skips that prompt entirely and silently blocks everything — no
notification, no way to whitelist.

Why this matters

Cowork is explicitly positioned as a tool for research and writing workflows.
Blocking all academic APIs while providing no mechanism for users to add trusted
domains creates a hard wall against the primary use case. Users are forced to run
workaround scripts locally outside Cowork, which defeats the purpose of the
agentic integration.

Standard Claude Code handles this gracefully with a permission prompt. Cowork
should offer at minimum an equivalent mechanism.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Claude Cowork (desktop app) and start a session with any project folder
2. Ask Claude to run the following bash command:

> "Run this command: curl -v --max-time 10 https://api.zotero.org/users/6269472/items?limit=1"

1. Claude executes it internally and returns:

* Uses proxy env variable https_proxy == 'http://localhost:3128'
*   Trying 127.0.0.1:3128...
* Connected to (nil) (127.0.0.1) port 3128 (#0)
* Establish HTTP proxy tunnel to api.zotero.org:443
> CONNECT api.zotero.org:443 HTTP/1.1
> Host: api.zotero.org:443
> User-Agent: curl/7.81.0
> Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
>
< HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
< Content-Type: text/plain
< X-Proxy-Error: blocked-by-allowlist

* Received HTTP code 403 from proxy after CONNECT
* CONNECT phase completed!
* Closing connection 0
curl: (56) Received HTTP code 403 from proxy after CONNECT

1. Create .claude/settings.json in the project folder with:

{
  "sandbox": {
    "network": {
      "allowedDomains": ["api.zotero.org", "*.zotero.org"]
    }
  }
}

1. Ask Claude to retry the same curl command — still returns 403.

Project-level allowedDomains has no effect.

1. Ask Claude to run env | grep -i proxy and ss -tlnp to confirm:

• All traffic is forced through socat proxies on localhost:3128 (HTTP) and localhost:1080 (SOCKS5)
• The VM has no network interface other than loopback (127.0.0.1)
• The HTTP proxy enforces a strict allowlist with no user-configurable mechanism to extend it

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Code version 2.1.78

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

Additional Information

_No response_