claude.ai Connector MCP tools (Google Drive, etc.) intermittently unavailable in FleetView/daemon-backed sessions, then appear mid-session with no reconnect action
Environment
- Claude Code CLI, session spawned via FleetView (job
state.jsonshows"backend": "daemon") - Google Drive connector shown as "Connected" in Settings → Connectors the entire time (confirmed via screenshot at the start of this session)
What happened
In one continuous conversation, mcp__claude_ai_Google_Drive__search_files and read_file_content were confirmed absent via ToolSearch — tried both plain-keyword queries (google sheets drive, gdrive spreadsheet read, google workspace docs sheets drive connector) and exact select:mcp__claude_ai_Google_Drive__* name queries — across 5 separate checks spanning roughly an hour of session time. A plain WebFetch against the target Google Sheet, and against its unauthenticated CSV export URL (.../export?format=csv), both returned 401 Unauthorized, ruling out a public-sharing workaround.
Later in the same session, with no explicit reconnect/re-auth action taken by the user (no new login, no settings change, no session restart), a subsequent turn's tool-availability payload included mcp__claude_ai_Google_Drive__search_files/read_file_content as loadable deferred tools for the first time. Loading and calling them (via a subagent) succeeded immediately — search_files found the target file, read_file_content returned its full content — with no auth error on the first attempt.
Why this matters
This isn't an isolated incident. A tracked record from a prior session documents the same absence pattern recurring across at least 4 separate FleetView/background sessions between 2026-07-27 and today, always in sessions with backend: daemon. Since typing claude in a terminal can auto-route into FleetView with no alternative "interactive" entry point available to the user, Connector reliability inside these sessions is not simply "unavailable in background, available interactively" — it's non-deterministic within a single session's lifetime: unavailable for most of a session, then silently starts working partway through with no discernible trigger.
Ask
- Clarify whether claude.ai Connector OAuth is expected to attach to daemon-backed/FleetView sessions at all.
- If it is expected to attach, explain why it appears to attach late (mid-session) rather than at session start.
- If daemon-backed sessions are not expected to support Connectors, reflect that in the Connectors settings UI (currently shows "Connected" with no caveat about session-type limitations) so users don't reasonably assume it will work.