Desktop: Claude in Chrome finds no browser after an account switch, because the bridge stays connected under the old account

Bug: after switching account in Claude Desktop, Claude in Chrome stays connected to the bridge under the OLD account, so no browser is ever found until the server drops that connection or Desktop is restarted.

Version: Claude Desktop 2.16120.0 on macOS; Claude in Chrome extension 1.0.97.

What happens (from ~/Library/Logs/Claude/main.log, 2 Oct 2026, times local):

11:25:52 [claude-in-chrome] Connecting to bridge: wss://bridge.claudeusercontent.com/chrome/<old account uuid>
11:25:54 [claude-in-chrome] Paired with Chrome extension
11:32:56 [account] Login-state transition (loggedOut: false → true, uuid: <old> → <none>)
11:33:08 [claude-in-chrome] Chrome extension disconnected from bridge
11:34:15 [account] Login-state transition (loggedOut: true → false, uuid: <old> → <new>)
11:40:10 ensureConnected called, connected=true, authenticated=true, wsState=1 / Already connected and authenticated
11:40:20 No extensions found after waiting
11:40:20 Error calling tool: [claude-in-chrome] No Chrome extension connected after discovery

There is no new "Connecting to bridge" line after the switch. The extension is signed in to the new account, so the two sides wait on different accounts.

It happens on every Desktop account switch. On 25, 26 and 30 Sep it cleared only when the server dropped the old connection, after anywhere from 9 minutes to about 5 hours. Desktop then reconnected under the new account and paired within about 2 seconds. Restarting Chrome, signing the extension in again and reinstalling the extension don't help, because the stale connection is on the Desktop side.

Likely cause: on an account change, Desktop's reset only drops the Chrome bridge connection when the local-pairing flag is on. The log says "local pairing flag reads off". The account is read only when a connection opens, so the open one keeps the old account.

Expected: an account switch closes the bridge and reconnects under the new account.

Related: #98621 (the same in the CLI after /login), #41298.