Claude in Chrome: session reports "extension not connected" despite extension showing enabled/reconnected

Summary
In a Cowork (cloud) session, calling the browser automation tools (e.g. tabs_context_mcp) consistently returns "Browser extension is not connected," even after confirming the extension is enabled and reconnecting the browser multiple times.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a Cowork session with Claude in Chrome enabled.
2. Confirm the extension shows as "enabled" in Chrome/Claude settings.
3. From the session, attempt to use a browser automation tool (e.g. tabs_context_mcp with createIfEmpty: true).
4. Reconnect/re-enable the browser extension and retry the same call.

Expected behavior
The session should detect the connected extension and return tab context successfully.

Actual behavior
Every attempt (including after reconnecting) returns the same error:
"Browser extension is not connected. Please ensure the Claude browser extension is installed and running (https://claude.ai/chrome), and that you are logged into claude.ai with the same account as Claude Code. If this is your first time connecting to Chrome, you may need to restart Chrome for the installation to take effect."

Troubleshooting already tried

• Reconnected the browser extension and retried — same error
• Extension shows as enabled on the account side, not just toggled

Environment

• Product: Claude Cowork (cloud session)
• Chrome version: <add yours here — chrome://settings/help>
• Claude in Chrome extension version: <add yours here — chrome://extensions>
• OS: <add yours here>
• Account plan: <Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise>