[BUG][A11y] macOS desktop app: sidebar conversation list, scheduled tasks and transcript are absent from the accessibility tree (containers present, zero children)

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?

This is about the Claude desktop app for macOS (com.anthropic.claudefordesktop 1.26832.0), not the CLI. The bug report form is CLI-shaped, so some required fields below are marked not applicable.

Large parts of the desktop UI are missing from the macOS accessibility (AX) tree. The container elements are present with correct frames, but report zero children, so their contents are invisible to VoiceOver and to any assistive or automation tool that reads the AX tree.

Absent:

• the Recents / conversation list in the sidebar
• the scheduled task rows in the sidebar
• the conversation transcript in the main pane

Present and correct: the window, the web area, and the fixed sidebar buttons (New, Projects, Artifacts, Scheduled, Dispatch, Customize), each with accurate frames.

The whole app tree is about 250 nodes. The sidebar landmark contains the fixed buttons, then two AXGroup elements whose frames match the scheduled task list and the Recents list exactly, both with no children. The AXLandmarkRegion for the primary pane likewise holds an empty group where the transcript should be.

None of the following changed anything:

• setting AXManualAccessibility on the application element
• setting AXManualAccessibility and AXEnhancedUserInterface on each window element
• activating the app first, then re-reading
• walking the whole tree once to warm it, waiting, then walking again

A smaller secondary window exposed the fixed sidebar buttons while a fullscreen main window exposed nothing at all below the web area, which suggests the tree is built per web contents and is incomplete rather than merely lazy.

What Should Happen?

Rows in the sidebar conversation list are exposed as focusable elements with accessible names, matching what a browser exposes for the same web UI on claude.ai, and the transcript is readable by a screen reader.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the macOS desktop app with several conversations in Recents.
2. From any accessibility client, get the application element and set AXManualAccessibility to true.
3. Walk AXChildren from the application element downwards.
4. Observe that the sidebar's Recents group and the primary pane group have correct frames and no children.

Reproduced with Hammerspoon's hs.axuielement; the same is visible in Accessibility Inspector and with VoiceOver.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

N/A - Claude desktop app 1.26832.0 (com.anthropic.claudefordesktop)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

Impact

• VoiceOver users cannot browse or select conversations in the desktop app, or read the transcript.
• Assistive tooling, Switch Control and user automation that depend on the accessibility tree are all blocked.
• Related: there is no menu item and no built-in shortcut for previous/next conversation (#38447, #69676). With the accessibility tree empty as well, there is nothing left for a user to bind or drive. The only workaround I found was reading the sidebar's pixels from a screenshot and synthesising clicks.

Happy to supply a full tree dump if that would help.