Duplicate bot is silently suppressing unresolved claude-in-chrome issues — 6 open issues, 0 official responses

This is not a bug report. This is a process critique with data.

The pattern

When a user files a claude-in-chrome connection issue, the following happens every time:

1. Bot comments "Found 3 possible duplicate issues" within minutes
2. Bot schedules auto-close in 3 days
3. No Anthropic staff ever responds
4. Issue gets buried or closed

Evidence: 8 issues, 0 official responses

I filed two issues this week (#46658, #46662). The bot linked 6 "possible duplicates." I checked every single one:

| Issue | Created | State | Anthropic staff reply? |
|-------|---------|-------|----------------------|
| #33880 | 2026-03-13 | Open | ❌ No |
| #37833 | 2026-03-23 | Open | ❌ No |
| #40758 | 2026-03-30 | Open | ❌ No |
| #41879 | 2026-04-01 | Open | ❌ No |
| #44605 | 2026-04-07 | Open | ❌ No |
| #45227 | 2026-04-08 | Open | ❌ No |
| #46658 | 2026-04-11 | Open | ❌ No |
| #46662 | 2026-04-11 | Open | ❌ No |

8 issues spanning 4 weeks. Zero official responses. All comment activity is from community members doing Anthropic's debugging work for free.

The bot makes this worse, not better

• The bot links to unresolved issues as "duplicates" — implying the problem is already handled when it isn't
• Users who see "auto-closing in 3 days" assume someone looked at it. Nobody did.
• Each new issue links to different "duplicates" (our two issues linked to 6 completely different issues), proving the bot is pattern-matching titles, not verifying actual duplicates
• Community members in #33880 and #40758 found actual root causes (native host manifest conflicts, bridge auth failures, feature flag issues). This work is invisible because it's buried in auto-closed threads.

What the community found (without any help from Anthropic)

Users independently diagnosed multiple root causes:

• Native host manifest conflict between Claude Desktop and Claude Code (#33880)
• Bridge WebSocket auth failure — "Invalid token or user mismatch" (#37833)
• --remote-debugging-port silently ignored on Chrome 147 macOS (#46658)
• --chrome flag lost on session resume (#46662)
• Password manager extensions interfering with connection (#40758)

These are real, actionable findings. None received acknowledgment.

What would actually help

1. Acknowledge the issue exists. A one-line "we're aware, investigating" on any of these 8 issues would go a long way.
2. Pin a troubleshooting guide. The community already found most of the root causes. Compile them.
3. Fix the bot policy. Auto-closing against unresolved issues is suppression, not deduplication. The bot should only link to issues that have an official response or resolution.
4. If the feature isn't ready, say so. "Claude in Chrome (Beta)" has been broken for a month with no communication. Either fix it or mark it as non-functional.

Summary

The duplicate bot is currently functioning as an issue suppression system. It creates the appearance of triage without any actual triage happening. Users spend time writing detailed reproduction steps, the bot closes their issue, and the cycle repeats.

This is not how you treat a paying team-plan customer base.