Cowork broken on latest 1.3036.0 — "Failed to create bridge sockets" on all sessions

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?

Claude Desktop: 1.3036.0 (latest)
Claude Code CLI in VM: 2.1.111
macOS: [your version — check Apple Menu → About This Mac]
All Cowork sessions fail ~900ms with exit code 1.
VM log error: "Error: Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts"
Tried (all failed):

• Full Claude Desktop reinstall
• Full Mac reboot
• New sessions (isResume=false) and resume sessions
• Clearing claude-code-vm cache (redownloaded same 2.1.111)
• No VPN, no firewall, TMPDIR writable

Related: #19503, #23746, #11079
Claude Code in terminal works fine. Only Cowork VM-spawned Claude Code fails.

What Should Happen?

Cowork sessions should start successfully and allow Claude Code to run inside the Cowork VM. Opening any Cowork project (new or resumed) should produce a working chat session.

Error Messages/Logs

What Should Happen?

Cowork sessions should start successfully and allow Claude Code to run inside the Cowork VM. Opening any Cowork project (new or resumed) should produce a working chat session.
Error Messages/Logs

Claude Desktop: 1.3036.0
Claude Code CLI (inside VM): 2.1.111
macOS: [check Apple Menu → About This Mac]
Every Cowork session fails immediately with exit code 1, ~900ms after spawn.
From ~/Library/Logs/Claude/cowork_vm_node.log:
2026-04-16 14:54:42 [info] [Spawn:config] Creating spawn function for process=sweet-wonderful-faraday, isResume=false, allowedDomains=23
2026-04-16 14:54:43 [warn] [vm-stderr a251f4d1] Error: Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts
2026-04-16 14:54:43 [info] [Process:a251f4d1-495d-48c4-b3e7-c06240ad25a0] Exited, code=1, signal=null, duration=813ms, oom=false
From main.log:
[error] Session local_xxx query error: Claude Code process exited with code 1
  unhealthy_reason: 'system_error',
  error_message: 'Claude Code process exited with code 1',
  error_category: 'process_crashed',
Reproduces on:
- New sessions (isResume=false) AND resumed sessions
- All Cowork projects
- After full Claude Desktop reinstall
- After full Mac reboot
- After clearing ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-vm/ cache (redownloaded same 2.1.111)
Ruled out:
- No VPN, no firewall active
- TMPDIR exists and is writable (/var/folders/...)
- No suspicious network extensions
- Regular Claude chat works fine
- Claude Code in terminal works fine
- Only Cowork VM-spawned Claude Code fails
Related issues: #19503, #23746, #11079

Steps to Reproduce

Yes. Cowork was working normally prior to today (2026-04-16). Successful Cowork runs as recent as this morning in our logs (e.g., a Redfin MLS scraper run completed successfully in Cowork earlier today). Cowork started failing after that with no user configuration changes.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.89 (Claude Code) — local terminal install Note: The Claude Code version that crashes inside the Cowork VM is 2.1.111 (per logs: "Installing SDK: subpath=...claude-code-vm, version=2.1.111"). That's the version spawned by Cowork — the local terminal 2.1.89 works fine.

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_