Summary

The bundled Claude Code CLI shipped with Claude Desktop (version 2.1.92 on macOS arm64) fails to start when spawned under posix_spawnattr_set_disclaim_np. Since Claude Desktop always runs the Code tab CLI through its own disclaimer helper (which sets that attribute), the Code tab silently hangs — the user sends a message and gets no response.

Reproduction

On an affected machine (macOS Tahoe / Darwin 25.4.0, Apple Silicon):

# Fails — bundled 2.1.92 binary under disclaimer:
/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Helpers/disclaimer \
  ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.92/claude.app/Contents/MacOS/claude \
  --version
# Output: error: An unknown error occurred (Unexpected)
# Exit: 1

# Works — same binary without disclaimer:
~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.92/claude.app/Contents/MacOS/claude --version
# Output: 2.1.92 (Claude Code)
# Exit: 0

# Works — newer 2.1.101 standalone binary under the same disclaimer:
/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Helpers/disclaimer \
  ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.101 \
  --version
# Output: 2.1.101 (Claude Code)
# Exit: 0

# Works — sanity check that disclaim itself isn't broken:
/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Helpers/disclaimer /bin/echo hello
# Output: hello
# Exit: 0

So the bug is specifically in the 2.1.92 bundled CLI's startup code path under a disclaimed spawn. It's fixed by version 2.1.101.

Environment

• macOS Tahoe (Darwin 25.4.0)
• Claude Desktop (latest as of 2026-04-10)
• Bundled CLI version: 2.1.92 (darwin-arm64)
• Apple Silicon (M-series)

Entitlements on 2.1.92 and 2.1.101 are identical (allow-jit, allow-unsigned-executable-memory, disable-library-validation, device.audio-input), so it's not an entitlements regression — it's a runtime bug in 2.1.92.

Impact

Users whose Claude Desktop installation is pinned to the 2.1.92 bundled CLI see the Code tab silently do nothing. A fresh Claude Desktop install (via drag-to-Trash → redownload) still fetches the broken 2.1.92 bundle, so reinstalling doesn't help.

Workaround

Replace the bundled binary with a symlink to any newer CLI that starts correctly under disclaim:

DIR=~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.92/claude.app/Contents/MacOS
rm "$DIR/claude"
ln -s ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.101 "$DIR/claude"

Symlinking (rather than copying + re-signing) preserves the Developer ID signature, which the disclaimed process requires to initialize — ad-hoc signing the same binary contents doesn't work.

Suggested Fix

Ship a newer bundled CLI (2.1.101+) with Claude Desktop. Alternatively, identify what changed between 2.1.92 and 2.1.101 in CLI startup that made disclaimed spawns work, and cherry-pick the fix into a 2.1.92 point release if that channel is still in use.

Related

Previously filed anthropics/claude-code#46440 based on an incorrect root cause (OPERON_SANDBOXED_NETWORK leak from Electron). That issue should be closed in favor of this one — the env var is not actually set on affected machines, and the real problem is the disclaimed-spawn bug described above.