[BUG] Desktop app: left sidebar (Claude Code / Chat / Cowork) completely missing

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?

Description:
The desktop app shows no left sidebar at all - only a plain chat input box,
with no way to access Claude Code or Cowork tabs/icons. The browser version
of claude.ai with the same account shows the sidebar correctly with icons
for Chat, Claude Code (</>) and Cowork.

Steps tried (none fixed it):

• App update
• Restart
• Sign out / sign back in
• Full uninstall + clean reinstall
• Window resize / maximize
• Zoom reset (Ctrl+0) - fixed it on the website, not in the app

Environment:

• Windows (ASUS laptop)
• Hebrew locale
• CPU virtualization: Enabled (confirmed in Task Manager)
• Issue persists even after a completely clean reinstall

Additional notes:

• Clicking the hamburger/lines menu icon sometimes crashes the app with no error dialog

What Should Happen?

The left sidebar should be visible at all times, showing navigation icons/tabs
for Chat, Claude Code (</>), and Cowork - matching the behavior of the browser
version of claude.ai when logged into the same account. Users should be able
to switch between these modes from the desktop app, the same way they can on
the website.

Error Messages/Logs

No error dialog appears on screen when the sidebar fails to load or when the
hamburger/lines menu icon is clicked and the app crashes.

However, the app's local log file (%APPDATA%\Claude\logs\main) contains this
entry around the time of a logout attempt:

[error] [logout] Failed to stop VM on logout: VM service not running. The service failed to start.

This may or may not be related - the VM (used for Claude Code/Cowork sessions)
loaded successfully in most other log entries. No other explicit error
messages were found related to the missing sidebar itself.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Claude Desktop app on Windows (clean install).
2. Sign in with an existing claude.ai account that has access to Claude Code and Cowork (confirmed working correctly when the same account is used on claude.ai in a browser, where the sidebar with Chat/Claude Code/Cowork icons appears normally).
3. Open the app and start a new conversation.
4. Observe the app window: only a chat input box is shown, with no left sidebar and no way to switch to Claude Code or Cowork.
5. (Optional) Click the hamburger/lines menu icon in the top-left corner - in some cases this causes the app to close immediately with no error dialog.

Notes:

• This reproduces even after a full uninstall and clean reinstall of the app.
• This reproduces on a fresh account session (sign out / sign back in did not fix it).
• CPU virtualization is enabled in the system (confirmed via Task Manager), so this is not a virtualization-disabled issue.
• The issue is specific to the desktop app; the website works correctly with the same account.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

ד

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_