Desktop app: forked sessions don't auto-connect Remote Control despite "Enable remote control by default"
Environment
- Claude Code 2.1.270, Claude Desktop app (macOS 15.7.3)
- Settings → Claude Code → Enable remote control by default is ON
- Pro/Max subscription login
Steps to reproduce
- In the desktop app, start a session. It auto-connects Remote Control and appears in the Claude mobile app as expected.
- Fork that session (desktop app fork).
- Work in the fork for a while (multiple turns).
- Open the Claude mobile app → Code → session list.
Expected
The forked session appears on mobile like any other session, since auto-connect is enabled.
Actual
The fork never appears on mobile. Only sessions that were started fresh (not forked) are listed. Cross-session ListAgents from another session shows the forks as plain local interactive sessions with no Remote Control registration.
Running /remote-control manually inside the fork fixes it — but on the first attempt it returned:
remote control requires an active session, send a message first
even though the fork had been actively working for hours. Sending another message and re-running /rc after the reply then connected it successfully.
Notes / guess
Auto-connect seems to fire on process start, and a fork appears to reuse the parent's already-running process, so the hook never fires for it. The "requires an active session" error on a session that clearly is active is probably the same root cause (the fork isn't seen as a distinct registrable session until it's poked).
Workaround for anyone hitting this: fork → type /rc once (send a message first if it complains).