Desktop: session busy indicator (grey dot) stuck permanently after publishing an Artifact (live subscription rendered as in-progress work)
Summary
In the Claude Desktop app (Windows), the session "in progress" indicator (grey dot in the session list) stays lit permanently once the session has published an Artifact, even when the session is completely idle. This makes it impossible to tell at a glance when a session has actually finished working.
Environment
- Claude Code 2.1.81, Windows desktop app
- Windows 11 Home (10.0.26200)
Steps to reproduce
- In a desktop session, publish an Artifact (the publish result reports "Live subscription: arming in the background").
- Let the session go fully idle: no background tasks, no subagents, no workflows, no scheduled wakeups, no monitors.
- Observe the session's dot in the session list.
Expected
Dot reflects actual work in flight; an idle session shows as idle.
Actual
Dot stays grey indefinitely. Isolated it to the Artifact live subscription (the watcher that notifies the session about artifact comments/republishes):
- Session idle with subscription armed -> dot grey for hours.
- Quit and reopen Claude Desktop -> dot clears (subscription dies with the session process and does not re-arm on resume).
- Republish the same artifact from the session (no other activity that turn) -> dot goes grey again and stays grey after the turn ends.
Verified during the grey periods that nothing else was running: no in-process agents, no armed wakeups (ScheduleWakeup stopped cleanly), no background shell tasks, no workflows.
Impact
Any session that publishes an Artifact permanently reads as "busy". Users watching the dot to know when long autonomous work has finished get no signal, and the only workaround is restarting the app (which also tears down a useful feature, the comment/republish watcher).
Suggested fix
Render the artifact live subscription as a passive watcher rather than in-progress work, or give it a distinct indicator.