Claude Desktop: 'Failed to create bridge sockets' on macOS 26 Tahoe

Bug Description

Claude Desktop app fails with "Claude Code process exited with code 1" on every conversation. New conversations and reinstalling the app do not resolve the issue.

Error Details

From ~/Library/Logs/Claude/cowork_vm_node.log:

[warn] [vm-stderr] Error: Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts
[info] [Process] Exited, code=1, signal=null, duration=~900ms, oom=false

The VM spawns successfully, SDK installs, API is reachable, OAuth token is approved — but the Claude Code process crashes immediately when trying to create bridge sockets for IPC communication.

Environment

• macOS: 26.4.1 (Build 25E253) — macOS Tahoe
• Claude Desktop: 1.3036.0
• Claude Code SDK: 2.1.111
• Claude Code CLI: 2.1.111 (works fine in terminal)
• Chip: Apple Silicon (arm64)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Claude Desktop on macOS 26 Tahoe
2. Start any conversation (new or existing)
3. Error appears immediately: "Claude Code process exited with code 1"

What I've Tried

• Reinstalling Claude Desktop
• Clearing VM cache (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-vm/)
• Clearing VM bundles (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/vm_bundles/)
• Clearing logs
• Setting coworkFullVmSandbox: false in both config.json and claude_desktop_config.json
• Installing Node.js (v25.9.0)
• Force killing all Claude processes and restarting

None of these resolved the issue. The CLI (claude in terminal) works perfectly.

Expected Behavior

Conversations should start normally without bridge socket errors.

Additional Context

This appears to be a compatibility issue between the Claude Desktop VM sandbox and macOS 26 Tahoe's Virtualization framework. The sandbox setting cannot be disabled locally (appears to be server-side controlled).