Cowork "Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts" persists on Claude Desktop 1.18286.2 / macOS 26.4.1 — #49358 fix (v1.3109.0) not reaching this channel

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?

What's wrong

Claude Cowork's sandbox VM fails on every task — new and resumed — with:

Error: Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts

The Cowork process exits (code 1) within ~1s of spawning. Native file tools, web fetch, connectors, and Claude in Chrome all work — only the Cowork VM code-execution path is affected, matching the profile in #49358 / #49447 (VM boots and connects; the socat Unix→TCP proxy bridges never come up inside the guest).

This is the macOS 26 (Tahoe) Virtualization.framework regression that was closed as resolved in Claude Desktop v1.3109.0 (#49358, and its duplicates #49447 / #49549). The problem: on this machine the failure persists and Help → Check for Updates reports "No updates available," so the fix has not reached this build/release channel (or does not cover 26.4.1).

Environment

• Claude Desktop: 1.18286.2
• macOS: 26.4.1 (25E253), Apple Silicon (arm64)
• Failure occurs on new tasks and resumed tasks alike.

Note: the version numbers in the earlier threads (1.3036.0 -> fixed in 1.3109.0) don't line up with the 1.18286.x scheme this build reports, so it's unclear whether 1.18286.2 is before or after the fix. Either way, the bug is present and no update is offered.

Already tried (no effect)

• Full quit + relaunch of Claude Desktop
• Full machine reboot
• Help → Check for Updates → none available

(Per #49447, a full vm_bundles/ + cache purge and clean uninstall/reinstall also did not resolve it.)

What Should Happen?

A new Cowork task should launch its sandbox VM and run shell commands / code, as it does on pre-Tahoe macOS (e.g. Sequoia 15.x). The bridge sockets should be created and the Cowork process should stay alive instead of exiting code 1 with "Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts".

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. On macOS 26.4.1 (Tahoe), Apple Silicon, with Claude Desktop 1.18286.2.
2. Open Cowork and start any new task that runs a shell command (or any code execution).
3. Observe the task fail immediately (~1s).
4. Check ~/Library/Logs/Claude/cowork_vm_node.log — the VM boots and connects, then the spawned process exits code 1 with "Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts".

Reproduces 100% of the time on new and resumed tasks. Help → Check for Updates reports no update available.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Desktop 1.18286.2 (Cowork). The bundled claude binary only runs inside the failing Cowork VM, so claude --version is unavailable.

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_