Cowork issues on macOS
Issues the maintainers labelled both platform:macos and area:cowork.
728 issues · 140 open · 588 resolved (81%) · first seen Jan 15, 2026
Is this getting better or worse?
This class of problem is converging. 228 new reports in the last 90 days vs 477 in the 90 before — -52%. The open backlog peaked at 195 in 2026-04 and sits at 140 today.
Derived by counting each matching issue from its creation date until it closed. First-party
computation over the anthropics/claude-code tracker — the trend is not published
anywhere upstream.
Which builds report this
269 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 94 releases. Heaviest reporters:
- Claude Code v2.1.111
- Claude Code v2.1.92
- Claude Code v2.1.81
- Claude Code v2.1.229
- Claude Code v2.1.177
- Claude Code v2.1.87
- Claude Code v2.1.202
- Claude Code v2.1.121
Report volume, not a defect count: an issue can mention a build without that build having caused the failure. Versions come from the version string in the bug-report template, matched against real published tags.
Do these get fixed?
Median time to close is 33 days across 588 closures. Of the 588 closures with a recorded reason, 19% were closed as completed and 477 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-08.
Workarounds reported by the community
220 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:
- [BUG] Cowork Can't add private GitHub marketplace
- …ll org-internal plugin distribution through Cowork. The CLI workaround works but leaves teammates unable to install without terminal tooling.
Found in the thread of #28125 · still open - [FEATURE] Model switching for existing Cowork tasks within Projects
- …des instead of fearing them. Alternative Solutions The only workaround I have found is manually copying persona instructions and key decisions into a brand-new task. This loses the live conversation history and the per-t…
Found in the description of #49649 · still open - [BUG] Cowork (Not Claude Code) 1M context window unavailable on Max 5x — regression from March 20
- …ks has been broken since March 19 19:33 UTC. No client-side workaround exists. This requires a server-side fix.
Found in the thread of #37413 · still open - [BUG] Cowork: Global instructions silently revert to older version after saving
- …s who maintain detailed instruction sets. The only reliable workaround is to put all instructions in a file in the mounted folder, which bypasses entirely. Related issues: 27941, 20637, 24578, 29929, 30329, PR 29077 (unm…
Found in the description of #40175 · still open - [BUG] Cowork — "Additional allowed domains" allowlist non-functional
- …the sandbox proxy. Would appreciate any update on a fix or workaround short of enabling "All domains". --- Note: English is not my first language. This comment was written with the assistance of an AI(Claude.ai).
Found in the thread of #38984 · still open
Excerpts are quoted from the linked issue so you can judge relevance before opening it. Threads that only ask for a workaround, or report that there is none, are excluded. These are community suggestions, not official guidance from Anthropic — read the full thread before applying one.
Matching issues 1–100
Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments). Listing the top 300 of 728 matches; the statistics above cover all 728.
- [BUG] Google Drive connector shows connected but tools not exposed in Cowork
- [BUG] Cowork Can't add private GitHub marketplace
- [FEATURE] Model switching for existing Cowork tasks within Projects
- [BUG] Cowork (Not Claude Code) 1M context window unavailable on Max 5x — regression from March 20
- [BUG] Cowork: Global instructions silently revert to older version after saving
- [BUG] API Error: Rate limit reached on Cowork only - account-specific, persists across machines
- [BUG] Cowork — "Additional allowed domains" allowlist non-functional
- [BUG] Cowork sessions ignore user hooks and managed settings — sandbox platform mismatch breaks all settings resolution
- Dispatch main conversation permanently offline despite working Cowork tasks
- [BUG] Cowork crashes since v1.3036.0 is installed
- [BUG] Chrome extension steals focus and hijacks keyboard input during concurrent Cowork tasks (post-March 24 computer use update)
- [BUG] Dispatch responses generated but never delivered to clients (desktop Cowork & mobile)
- [BUG] Claude Code process exited with code 1 - happening with cowork on Desktop
- [BUG] REGRESSION: Cannot switch between Opus and Sonnet mid-thread in Cowork after April 15 desktop redesign
- Cowork OTLP monitoring not emitting events despite correct configuration
- [BUG] Cowork — GitHub connector unusable: OAuth DCR unsupported, UI shows misleading state, Disconnect button dead
- [BUG] Cowork: new projects lost "Choose a folder" — Context menu replaced with Chat-style upload-only knowledge menu after Chat/Cowork merge
- [BUG] Cowork on Windows: bash sandbox can create files on mounted host folder but unlink is denied — breaks all git write operations
- [BUG] 1.3036.0 (cf521c): All Cowork sessions crash with "exited with code 1" on macOS - Desktop-to-SDK spawn failure, SDK 2.1.111
- [BUG] Claude in Chrome + Control Chrome Failures in Cowork Mode
- [BUG] Claude Dispatch permanently showing "desktop appears offline" for multiple weeks
- [BUG] Cowork: "Reached maximum number of turns (100)" breaks long-running browser automation projects
- [BUG] AskUserQuestion permission channel closes silently on Cowork (macOS) — agent receives "Tool permission stream closed before response received", user sees no popup
- Cowork crashes with "exited with code 1" on v1.3036.0 (macOS) Body:
- Cowork downloads Linux binary instead of macOS on Intel Mac (exit code 132)
- [Bug] Escape key closes /btw modal and unintentionally rejects pending file edits
- [BUG] Cowork ECONNRESET on macOS - Unable to connect to API (Max plan)
- Permission mode reverts from bypassPermissions to acceptEdits on first prompt (Claude Desktop 2.1.149 / Cowork, macOS)
- Claude Desktop Task mode: "Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts" on macOS 26.4
- [BUG] Cowork: Cannot mount folders from external volumes (/Volumes/)
- [BUG] Cowork scheduled tasks don't fire unless Cowork view is actively focused
- Cowork dictation stops ~2s after start on macOS Tahoe 26.4.1 — began immediately after auto-update to 1.15962.0 (039543); chat dictation unaffected
- Desktop app: session history lost when switching accounts
- [BUG] Token consumption with Fable 5 is not matching with its description.
- Ultraplan teleport: refined plan does not return to originating CLI session
- [BUG] Cowork: Scheduled reserved-path overlap blocks mounting ~/Documents/Claude and every parent folder — no scheduled tasks ever created
- [BUG] Cowork Desktop (macOS): AskUserQuestion card never reaches renderer; yellow-dot badge shows pending but no UI; on app quit, pending request silently resolves as "Dismissed"
- [BUG] Cowork crashes with "Claude Code process exited with code 1" on macOS - all new sessions affected
- [BUG] Cowork 403 "Request not allowed" on Pro plan - Chat works fine
- [BUG] Remote session (ultraplan) receives wrong project context
- [BUG] Claude in Chrome extension OAuth fails with "Redirect URI chrome-extension:// is not supported by client" - Cowork desktop app
- Claude desktop local-agent VM (claudevm.bundle/rootfs.img) grows unboundedly and is never reclaimed — silently fills disk, causes out-of-space failures
- Cowork Desktop: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA} is not persistent across conversations (MCP plugin tokens lost on every new conversation)
- [BUG] Cowork fails on every new task with "Claude Code process exited with code 1."
- [BUG] Cowork macOS: all claude.ai-hosted MCP connectors fail — desktop OAuth token requested without `user:mcp_servers` scope
- [BUG] Cowork on Intel Mac: guest bundle 2a762adf… hangs in early init — bisected on two machines, rolled out ~06:00 UTC 18 Aug
- allow_cowork_file_delete tool returns "Permission denied" without showing permission dialog
- [BUG] Dispatch mobile shows "Can't reach desktop" despite desktop app running and Cowork working normally
- Cowork: Support Claude Code hooks (~/.claude/settings.json — UserPromptSubmit, Stop, etc.)
- [BUG] CoWork "Always allow" does not persist within same prompt — repeated permission prompts for each file edit
- ENOSPC: no space left on device
- [BUG] Cowork: VirtioFS mount fails for users with macOS username "shared" — path collision with /Users/Shared/
- [BUG] Cowork: Linux bash sandbox never finishes booting on macOS — every command returns "Workspace still starting"
- [BUG] Cowork on macOS 1.8555.2 — zero MCP tools bind in any install path (.mcpb + SDK bridge + Custom Connectors + project .mcp.json); spawn pipeline missing --mcp-config since 2026-05-23 auto-update
- [BUG] Cowork: input field intermittently loses focus/becomes unresponsive — voice input workaround restores it
- Dispatch: SendUserMessage tool not loadable — agent responds but messages never appear
- claude.ai Skills and Cowork plugins silently injected into Claude Code context — no opt-out, ~6k tokens wasted per session
- [BUG] Unbounded MCP server fan-out across Cowork/agent sessions exhausts RAM and kernel-panics macOS (4 panics + forced power-off on M2 Max / 32 GB)
- Cowork: Personal marketplace plugin installation lost after app restart
- [BUG] Claude Desktop Code/Cowork mode returns 403 "Request not allowed" while CLI and Chat work fine
- [BUG] Claude Cowork stuck on 'sending request'
- [BUG] Something went wrong Try sending your message again. If it keeps happening, share feedback so we can investigate. API Error: Usage credits required for 1M context · turn on usage credits at claude.ai/settings/usage, or use
- [FEATURE] Project-scoped skills in Cowork (parity with Claude Code's `.claude/skills/`)
- [BUG] Cowork: "Claude Code process exited with code 1" on every session — macOS Apple Silicon, clean reinstall, no fix
- Desktop Cowork: RemotePluginManager removes 3rd-party GitHub marketplace plugins on every sync
- [BUG] Cowork/Desktop: MCP tool inputSchema with property-level anyOf [X, null] (Optional[X]) is silently stripped before reaching the model
- [BUG] [BUG] Claude Desktop Cowork: download pipeline corrupts 2.1.111/linux-arm64/claude.zst — CDN file is intact, app's HTTP client breaks it
- [BUG] Cowork broken on macOS arm64: downloads.claude.ai serves 40MB tarball for claude-code 2.1.87, client expects 182MB (TAR_BAD_ARCHIVE)
- [BUG] Claude Desktop causes repeated WindowServer crashes on macOS 15.7.3 (Sequoia) — VirtualDisplayListener deadlock
- Dispatch session collisions cause message loss and transport failures
- [BUG] Cowork crashes with "Claude Code process exited with code 1" on every new session (macOS)
- [BUG] Cowork Plugin cache never cleaned up per session, causing sessiondata.img to fill up and all new conversations to fail
- Cowork: remote-devices file bridge disconnects repeatedly, including mid-operation
- [BUG] Managed MCP server tools permanently stuck in "Needs Approval" — users cannot approve unlisted tools, contradicting docs and UI
- [FEATURE] Allow configuring the Cowork workspace base path (Documents/Claude)
- [BUG] Cowork only loads 3/27 personal skills from ~/.claude/skills/ — UI does not scan directory
- [BUG] Desktop 1.3036.0 — Claude Code & Cowork crash with exit code 1 mid-turn
- Dispatch/Cowork: ECONNRESET when connecting to API
- OAuth tokens from ccr_inference (Cowork/CCD scheduled tasks) accumulate without cleanup
- [BUG] Cowork: Google Drive for Desktop mirrored/streaming folder fails to mount with "file exists" error
- [BUG] ClaudeCodeManager-VM Checksum Mismatch on macOS Apple Silicon — v1.9659.2
- [BUG] Cowork - Server busy / ECONNRESET on macOS - started ~14h UTC, May 25 2026
- [BUG] Live Artifacts (CoworkArtifacts.callMcpTool) reject local stdio MCP servers on cold start — claude.ai relay rejects server name as non-UUID
- [BUG] Cowork Chrome extension: JS execution permission prompts fire on every call during manual tasks — approvals do not persist
- [BUG] Cowork: "Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts" on Claude Desktop 1.3036.0 (macOS)
- [BUG] ultraplan 404 preventing the session from starting
- [BUG] API Error: Rate limit reached
- [BUG] Cowork destroys user files when reorganizing iCloud-offloaded documents (cp + rm -rf on 0-byte stubs)
- [BUG] Cowork VM connection timeout after update to 1.32352.0 on Intel Mac (guest never connects)
- [BUG] Cowork task list can no longer be grouped by Project after merged Chat/Cowork Home became default (v1.26832.0)
- [BUG] Cowork Tab Missing from Sidebar — Runtime Not Initializing (v1.15962.1, macOS M4)
- [BUG] Claude Code *Desktop* app lost the ability to select 1M Context variants of models for 3p inference
- [BUG] claude.ai Google Drive connector — create_file fails "User cannot add children to the specified folder" with explicit parentId, second reporter, fresh-chat reproduction, requesting re-triage (related: #57211 closed as invalid)
- [BUG] Claude Code process exited with code 1
- [BUG] Failed to Start Claude's Workspace
- [BUG] Dispatch 403 "Request not allowed" and Remote Control not enabled on Pro plan
- [BUG] Cowork VM: guest kernel does not enumerate NVMe disks on Intel Mac (x86_64) — hangs after Run /init, VM connection timeout after 60 seconds
- [BUG] Desktop App (Cowork/local agent mode): AskUserQuestion never renders — hangs until session stop auto-denies (regression since 2026-06-03; re-filing locked #26940)
- Cowork: artifacts folder hardcoded to Documents path, ignores selected project folder
- Ultraplan: stream timeouts, cache_control on empty blocks, teleport failure