Cowork agent registration 409 persists after app quit — no way to release an orphaned registration
Open 💬 0 comments Opened Jul 5, 2026 by dennisdonohoe
Environment
- Claude desktop app 1.18286.0 (macOS), Claude Code CLI 2.1.201
- Two Macs on one Max account: MacBook Pro and a Mac mini
Bug
The MacBook's desktop app holds the account's Cowork agent registration. The Mac mini's sessions-bridge can never register — every attempt returns:
Registration conflict (409): A Cowork agent is already registered on MacBook-Pro.local.
Disconnect it there before registering this device.
[request-id: req_011CcjQD76FRTTnQ5Lz41AHJ]The instruction "Disconnect it there" is not actionable:
- Fully quitting the Claude app on the MacBook (verified via Activity Monitor, waited several minutes) does not release the registration — the mini still gets the 409 on a fresh app launch.
- There is no visible disconnect/unregister control in the desktop app settings, and no documented UI path (checked code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop and support.claude.com).
Result: neither machine's sessions are reachable from the mobile app; the registration appears orphaned server-side with no user-accessible release mechanism.
Expected
Either quitting the app releases the registration (heartbeat/TTL), or there is a documented "disconnect this device" control, or registration transfers to the machine that requests it when the holder is offline.
Request-ids for tracing
- req_011CciPbYwk4oiRbzZq97FRG (2026-07-04 22:52 PT)
- req_011CcjQD76FRTTnQ5Lz41AHJ (2026-07-05 11:41 PT)
Workaround in use
claude --remote-control CLI session on the mini — works fine, so this is specifically a desktop-app Cowork registration issue.