[FEATURE] Let Claude open the Browser pane, or report its visibility state

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

When I ask Claude Code to open a local site "in your browser pane", Claude navigates the tab but cannot show me the pane. If the pane is closed or collapsed, preview_start, tabs_create and tabs_select all report success — they only pick which tab is active inside a pane that isn't displayed. The failure surfaces much later, on a screenshot:

screenshot failed: the Browser pane is not displayed, so the page is not compositing frames. Display the pane and retry.

Because every earlier call looked fine, Claude tends to either report the task as done when I can see nothing, or retry tabs_create/tabs_select in a loop, leaving stray tabs behind.

Proposed Solution

• A way to reveal the pane — e.g. preview_start({url, reveal: true}) or a show_pane tool. preview_start already reads as if it does this ("opens the Browser pane"), which is what misled me.
• At minimum, report visibility up front — include paneVisible: false in the results of preview_start, tabs_create, tabs_select and tabs_context, so Claude knows before doing any work and can just say "the pane is closed, please open it".

If revealing the pane is deliberately user-only, option 2 alone is enough, plus a note in the tool descriptions that fronting a tab does not display the pane.

Alternative Solutions

• A rule in my project's CLAUDE.md: treat that screenshot error as "pane closed", tell the user, wait. Works, but every project needs it and it's reactive.
• get_page_text / read_page: lets Claude inspect the page, but doesn't show it to me, which was the request.
• My own external browser: loses the shared view and screenshots.

Priority

Low - Nice to have

Feature Category

Developer tools/SDK

Use Case Example

1. I ask Claude to launch a local site and open it in the pane.
2. preview_start on https://localhost:44362/default.aspx → navOk: true, a tabId, no warning.
3. tabs_select → Fronted tab seed. Still no warning.
4. Screenshot → the Browser pane is not displayed.
5. Claude opens a second tab in the foreground and retries. Doesn't help. Two tabs now.
6. Claude tells me the pane is closed and I open it by hand.

With paneVisible: false at step 2, that becomes one message instead of five wasted calls — and no risk of Claude claiming the page is on screen when it isn't.

Additional Context

• Claude Code desktop app, Windows 11, Opus 5.
• The <preview_tools> guidance tells the agent to share proof with a screenshot and never ask the user to check manually — the exact step that fails when the pane is hidden.