The desktop app issues on WSL
Issues the maintainers labelled both platform:wsl and area:desktop.
51 issues · 29 open · 22 resolved (43%) · first seen Mar 21, 2026
Is this getting better or worse?
This class of problem is still growing. 31 new reports in the last 90 days vs 11 in the 90 before — +182%. The open backlog peaked at 29 in 2026-10 and sits at 29 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
26 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 19 releases. Heaviest reporters:
- Claude Code v2.1.260
- Claude Code v2.1.246
- Claude Code v2.1.283
- Claude Code v2.1.237
- Claude Code v2.1.187
- Claude Code v2.1.286
- Claude Code v2.1.284
- Claude Code v2.1.275
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 34 days across 22 closures. Of the 22 closures with a recorded reason, 36% were closed as completed and 14 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-08.
Workarounds reported by the community
17 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:
- [Feature Request] Native WSL Remote Integration for Claude Code Desktop on Windows
- …l: wrong shell, broken paths, toolchain mismatches. The SSH workaround is too clunky for daily use. VS Code's Remote - WSL solved this years ago. Claude Code Desktop deserves the same. This would unlock the Desktop UI fo…
Found in the thread of #49933 · resolved - New session always opens in last used project directory instead of selected one
- …han the last used project from the desktop app UI. The only workaround is to run from the terminal inside the target directory.
Found in the description of #49888 · resolved - [BUG] Claude Code desktop ignores permission configurations for WSL projects, requiring approval for every file operation despite proper settings
- …s correctly, so glob patterns in settings.json never match. Workaround — use CLI instead of Desktop: The CLI version runs natively in WSL and resolves paths correctly. Permission settings in (WSL-side) work as expected.…
Found in the thread of #37192 · resolved - WSL-path folder selection forces "WSL" environment instead of "Local", breaking Chrome extension and MCP plugins (regression)
- …vironment to WSL, with no way to keep it Local. I tried two workarounds and both still flip to WSL: - explicitly choosing "Local" in the environment picker before selecting the folder; - mapping the \\wsl.localhost path…
Found in the thread of #77788 · still open - Desktop app file viewer cannot open links to files under additionalDirectories
- +1 for me. There is a manual workaround, but it is a pain to do it in every session. I haven't found a way to make it happen automatically. Here's how Claude describes the workaround: Workaround: ask Claude to explicitly…
Found in the thread of #94446 · 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 1–51
Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments).
- [Feature Request] Native WSL Remote Integration for Claude Code Desktop on Windows
- Desktop app: bypassPermissions mode still prompts for confirmation
- New session always opens in last used project directory instead of selected one
- [BUG] Claude Code desktop ignores permission configurations for WSL projects, requiring approval for every file operation despite proper settings
- WSL-path folder selection forces "WSL" environment instead of "Local", breaking Chrome extension and MCP plugins (regression)
- [BUG] SSH remote connection fails with "All configured authentication methods failed" after Desktop update to v1.2581.0.0 (Windows MSIX)
- Desktop app file viewer cannot open links to files under additionalDirectories
- [FEATURE] Integrated terminal support for WSL sessions in Desktop app Code tab
- Windows Desktop app: "+New > Local" session spawns via SSH into WSL instead of native Windows, so the browser pane never appears
- [BUG] Desktop app: git branch chip shows "—" and is not clickable for WSL workspaces
- [BUG] Desktop WSL session: NO_INSTALL_RESULT because installer writes remote server binary as root without exec bit
- [BUG] Windows desktop app watching WSL repo paths triggers WSLg msrdc.exe focus-stealing (regression after today's update)
- [BUG] Desktop app fails to boot workspace on Windows WSL2 — CLI works fine
- [Feature Request] Pre-configure WSL environments for Desktop sessions (wslConfigs / deep link / trust via settings)
- Claude Desktop - Unknown Error on startup after computer restart (Windows)
- [FEATURE] Cowork (Windows): allow connecting folders that live in WSL
- [FEATURE] Visual UI for Agent Teams (and persistent always-on agents) in Claude Desktop
- Desktop app: hours-long session transcript permanently lost (not just a display/routing bug)
- Desktop WSL sessions get no `ccd_session` host MCP: `mark_chapter` is unavailable, so chapter dividers and the floating table of contents never appear
- [BUG] [Desktop 3P / Bedrock] WSL-folder Code sessions fail with "Bedrock credentials are managed by the desktop app, but none are available" — remote spawn path does not deliver credentials for any credential kind
- Desktop + WSL: composer branch chip shows '—' and worktree toggle silently creates no worktree (session runs in main checkout)
- Desktop app (WSL): existing chat shows "No messages yet" — transcript is present in WSL but never loaded into the UI
- Desktop app on Windows should execute natively in WSL for projects on \wsl.localhost\ paths
- [BUG] SSH remote silently drops all prompts — strace confirms no data on stdin (fd 0)
- [BUG] Desktop (Windows): file preview for WSL sessions broken since 1.37937.1 — "Couldn't preview this file. It couldn't be read from the remote session."
- Desktop/web session rename doesn't propagate to cross-session registry (ListAgents/SendMessage still show derived name)
- [BUG] Code/SSH: all session history blank when ~/.claude/projects is a symlink (transcript locator runs `find` without -L)
- [BUG] Preview pane auto-refresh steals keyboard focus from chat input while typing (Windows desktop, 2.1.170)
- [BUG] Claude Code Desktop (MSIX) does not render responses in SSH/WSL2 mode — ANSI escape code in model argument
- Desktop app (Code tab, WSL2): Edit/Read allow rules in project .claude/settings.json not applied in Manual mode; same rules work in terminal CLI 2.1.278
- Desktop app "+New" creates a session bound to the previous project instead of prompting for one
- login Session bug
- [BUG] - Profile with annotation @ in Claude Code
- [BUG] Desktop-launched sessions: claude.ai connector push (replaceRemoteMcpServers) is never applied to an in-flight turn — first turn of every fresh session has no connector tools
- Project-level settings.local.json sandbox config ignored in Desktop-app (claude-desktop entrypoint) sessions
- [BUG] Desktop (Windows/WSL): detached window's slash menu lists only bundled skills
- [FEATURE] Let a folder on a WSL path open as a Local (Windows) session
- [BUG] Desktop app (SSH-remote to WSL2) history panel empty after restart — sessions exist on disk but never listed
- Companion app: file paths with ~/ resolve incorrectly
- [BUG] Desktop (Windows + WSL): new session screen doesn't load WSL skills or show Files/Git panels until the session starts
- [BUG] Desktop app: "View transcript" for a nested subagent (spawned by another subagent) shows only its prompt
- [BUG][Windows][WSL] Desktop diff-panel git probes still leak orphaned git.exe after #94655, when the session's folder is in WSL (\\wsl.localhost)
- [BUG] Desktop (WSL2): session disappears from sidebar right after its linked PR is merged
- [BUG] Claude Code Desktop (Code tab) does not see CLI-installed plugins — confirmed not plugin-specific
- [BUG] Opening a conversation in the desktop app resumes the session and runs SessionStart hooks
- Open in → VS Code/Cursor passes untranslated Linux paths under WSL
- Desktop: WSL section missing entirely from environment picker on new session screen (regression after update to 1.49585.0)
- Desktop + WSL: "+" on a project row opens the generic New view instead of starting a session in that project (Local works)
- [BUG] Cowork (Linux/WSL2): new project never prompts for directory; in-session folder not persisted
- Claude Code desktop app (Windows): PR chip icon stays green after the PR is merged
- Claude Code desktop app (Windows): PR chip icon stays green after the PR is merged