[FEATURE] Dispatch: attach to existing cowork sessions instead of always spawning new ones

Status Closed — not planned
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 6 comments · opened Mar 31, 2026 · closed May 16, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
  • [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Dispatch currently spawns a new Cowork session for every task sent from mobile. There is no way to continue, monitor, or interact with an existing Cowork task that was started on the desktop.

This means if I start a complex, multi-step task at my desk and then leave, I can't pick it up from my phone. I have to wait until I'm back at my computer, or start the whole thing again from scratch via Dispatch, which creates a duplicate session with none of the prior context.
The core value of Dispatch is "fire a task, walk away, come back to finished work." But that only works for tasks short enough to complete unattended. Anything that needs steering, clarification, or a follow-up prompt mid-flight is locked to the desktop.

NB: Acknowledging the claude-code repo, however it is my understanding that claude cowork is a gui wrapper and the session routing would need to be solved here.

Proposed Solution

Let Dispatch attach to an existing active Cowork session rather than always creating a new one. This could work as:

  • Session picker on mobile — When opening Dispatch, show a list of active Cowork sessions (title, status, last activity). Tapping one opens a mobile view of that session's conversation thread where I can read progress and send follow-up messages.
  • Continue vs. new task — Keep the current "send a new task" flow as the default, but add a way to switch into an existing session. Could be as simple as a "Continue active task" option above the message input.
  • Read-only as a minimum — Even if bi-directional interaction with an existing session is hard, read-only access to active Cowork task progress from mobile would cover the most common case: checking whether something finished, reading output, and deciding whether to intervene when back at the desk.

Alternative Solutions

  1. Using an OpenClaw (or similar)
  2. Starting the cowork task via dispatch on mobile app (every single time) is frustrating.

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Other

Use Case Example

  1. Start cowork task on desktop
  2. Leave to commute / travel
  3. Continue cowork task on mobile app

Additional Context

Issue #37713 addresses Dispatch session isolation from Projects (no shared context, directory access, or file presentation permissions). That's about the spawned session lacking inherited context.
This request is about session routing: the ability to connect Dispatch to an already-running session rather than always creating a new one.

View original on GitHub ↗

6 Comments

github-actions[bot] · 5 months ago

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

  1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/38470
  2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/37002
  3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/40749

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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Reebz · 5 months ago

I believe this feature request stands on its own due to its specificity. Defer to a future reviewer's judgement.

Specifically, it is that Dispatch is creating a new Task and not syncing with an existing Cowork task. Dispatch Tasks appear in Cowork Task list, however Cowork Tasks to not appear/are accessible by Dispatch.

The below issues are generally CLI focused or broad as it relates to cross-channel synchronization across Anthropic products. I would suggest that 38470 was closed prematurely and could stand as a valid feature request when scoped specifically to Dispatch.

gxlzj · 4 months ago

agree this is important and independent issues

github-actions[bot] · 3 months ago

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

Ancez · 3 months ago

Hey, I really want this feature as remote-control can sometimes disconnect and it'd be nice to have an actual coworker that works with other workers. It'd serve as a nice orchestrator imo.

github-actions[bot] · 1 month ago

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.