anthropics / anthropics/claude-code

Desktop app: forked sessions don't auto-connect Remote Control despite "Enable remote control by default"

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#95,339 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:desktop bug has repro platform:macos
Dominant language
Python
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Description

## 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
1. In the desktop app, start a session. It auto-connects Remote Control and appears in the Claude mobile app as expected.
2. Fork that session (desktop app fork).
3. Work in the fork for a while (multiple turns).
4. 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).

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by tracing the /remote-control and /rc entry points, then inspect how cross-session ListAgents represents forked sessions. Reproduce the fork workflow and verify that a fork auto-registers for Remote Control without requiring an extra message or manual command, while fresh sessions continue to connect normally.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
52/100

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