claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix /setup-cowork fails with RPC error: sandbox user already exists with stale uid/gid [1 comments, 2 participants]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

What happened: Running /setup-cowork consistently fails with the following error:

RPC error -1: ensure user: user brave-sleepy-ramanujan already exists unexpectedly: uid=1014 gid=1014 The follow-up message says "You can restart the conversation from an earlier message," but the error reproduces on every attempt, including after restarting the conversation and relaunching Claude Code. Cowork is completely unusable as a result — every Cowork command fails at this provisioning step.

Expected: /setup-cowork provisions a fresh sandbox and completes successfully.

Actual: Sandbox user brave-sleepy-ramanujan (uid=1014, gid=1014) appears to be orphaned on Anthropic's side. Looks like server-side state that needs to be cleared before a new sandbox can be provisioned for this account.

Environment:

OS: Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200 Shell: bash (Git Bash / MinGW) Claude Code version: (run claude --version in your normal terminal and paste it) Reproduction:

Invoke /setup-cowork Error appears immediately Restart conversation + relaunch Claude Code — same error Request: Please clear the orphaned sandbox user so provisioning can succeed.

What Should Happen?

/setup-cowork provisions a fresh sandbox and completes successfully.

Error Messages/Logs

Sandbox user brave-sleepy-ramanujan (uid=1014, gid=1014) appears to be orphaned on Anthropic's side. Looks like server-side state that needs to be cleared before a new sandbox can be provisioned for this account.

Steps to Reproduce

Invoke /setup-cowork Error appears immediately Restart conversation + relaunch Claude Code — same error

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

NA

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

I can't submit it directly — gh isn't installed in this environment, so I have no way to authenticate and post to GitHub from here. But I can draft the issue for you to paste. Open https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/new and use this:

Title: /setup-cowork fails with RPC error: sandbox user already exists with stale uid/gid

Body:

What happened: Running /setup-cowork consistently fails with the following error:

RPC error -1: ensure user: user brave-sleepy-ramanujan already exists unexpectedly: uid=1014 gid=1014

The follow-up message says "You can restart the conversation from an earlier message," but the error reproduces on every attempt, including after restarting the conversation and relaunching Claude Code. Cowork is completely unusable as a result — every Cowork command fails at this provisioning step.

Expected: /setup-cowork provisions a fresh sandbox and completes successfully.

Actual: Sandbox user brave-sleepy-ramanujan (uid=1014, gid=1014) appears to be orphaned on Anthropic's side. Looks like server-side state that needs to be cleared before a new sandbox can be provisioned for this account.

Environment:

• OS: Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200
• Shell: bash (Git Bash / MinGW)
• Claude Code version: (run claude --version in your normal terminal and paste it)

Reproduction:

1. Invoke /setup-cowork
2. Error appears immediately
3. Restart conversation + relaunch Claude Code — same error

Request: Please clear the orphaned sandbox user so provisioning can succeed.

Before you submit, grab claude --version from your normal terminal (PowerShell or CMD — it's not on PATH in this sandboxed bash) and paste it into the Environment section. Want me to save this draft to a file so you can grab it later?