SSH remote sessions in Claude Desktop on 3P changedthird-party/claude-desktop/ssh-remote-sessions
Nearest release: v2.1.311, published 15 hours after upstream edited the page. Shown because the two are within 24 hours of each other. Nothing here says the release caused the edit.
Upstream edited this page at 26 Oct 2026 04:23 UTC, give or take a minute or two: the time comes from Anthropic’s own sitemap rather than from a commit. This site recorded the change at 26 Oct 2026 04:37 UTC.
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### Hosts that allow one session per connection
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2020When the user reopens the session after a quit, Claude Desktop rejoins the engine or replaces it, unless it refuses to start the session:
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22* **Rejoins**: on a macOS or Linux device, Claude Desktop 2.42304.0 or later tries to rejoin an engine that 2.42304.0 or later started. If it rejoins, a turn still running goes on. It can fail to rejoin, for example after some Claude Desktop updates or after a change to the managed configuration since the engine started. After a quit it never rejoins on a Windows device, and never rejoins an engine that an earlier version started.
23* **Replaces**: otherwise, Claude Desktop ends the engine and starts a fresh one from the transcript stored on the host. A turn that finished while the app was closed is shown in full, and a turn that still runs is cut short. If the turn stays stopped, the user sends a message to continue it.
22* **Rejoins**: on a macOS or Linux device, Claude Desktop 2.42304.0 or later tries to rejoin an engine that 2.42304.0 or later started. On a Windows device, Claude Desktop 3.1623.0 or later tries to rejoin an engine that 3.1623.0 or later started. If it rejoins, a turn still running goes on. It can fail to rejoin, for example after some Claude Desktop updates or after a change to the managed configuration since the engine started.
23* **Replaces**: if Claude Desktop doesn't rejoin the engine, for example because a version older than the minimums above started it, Claude Desktop ends the engine and starts a fresh one from the transcript stored on the host. A turn that finished while the app was closed is shown in full, and a turn that still runs is cut short. If the turn stays stopped, the user sends a message to continue it.
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2525On a host that ends a user's processes at logout, the remote server and the engine end with the SSH connection that started them, so a turn in progress doesn't survive a disconnect. Linux hosts where systemd-logind's `KillUserProcesses` setting is `yes` and applies to the SSH user behave this way. To keep remote sessions running through a disconnect on such a host, ask the host's administrator to exempt the SSH user, for example by listing the user under `KillExcludeUsers` in the systemd-logind configuration.
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329329* Linux or macOS on x86\_64 or arm64, or Windows on x64 or arm64.
330330* On a Linux host, glibc 2.17 or later, or musl. The Claude Code engine is a single executable, and its glibc build links only against glibc's own libraries. Version 2.17 is the oldest glibc that build can load, and Claude Code's [system requirements](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup#system-requirements) still apply. To see the host's C library and its version, run `ldd --version` on the host. For a musl host, see [Alpine Linux and musl-based distributions](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup#alpine-linux-and-musl-based-distributions).
331331* An SSH server with the SFTP subsystem. On Windows, Microsoft's OpenSSH Server; with other SSH servers, the engine does not survive a dropped connection.
332* An SSH server that accepts several sessions on one connection. The device's OpenSSH client on macOS and Linux, and the built-in client, open a remote session's channels on one SSH connection, so `MaxSessions 1` in the server's `sshd_config` doesn't work. OpenSSH's default is 10. The server doesn't need to allow TCP, Unix socket, agent, or X11 forwarding. A `ProxyJump` host must allow TCP forwarding to the host's SSH port.
332* If devices connect with Claude Desktop's built-in SSH client (the default on Windows devices), an SSH server that accepts several sessions on one connection. The built-in client can't connect where the server's `sshd_config` sets `MaxSessions 1`. Raise that limit, for example to OpenSSH's default of 10, or see [Hosts that allow one session per connection](#hosts-that-allow-one-session-per-connection).
333* The server doesn't need to allow TCP, Unix socket, agent, or X11 forwarding. A `ProxyJump` host must allow TCP forwarding to the host's SSH port.
333334* A POSIX shell, or PowerShell on Windows.
334335* `git` on the path, for git features.
335336* A home directory that the SSH user can write to and run programs from, with about 1 GB of disk space for the three Claude Code versions the app keeps and a fourth while an update installs. A home directory mounted `noexec` doesn't work.
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359360* Devices installed with the regular installer must reach `downloads.claude.ai`: Claude Desktop downloads the remote server there and uploads it to the host over SFTP. Devices installed with the [offline installer](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/installation.md#offline-installation) don't: it bundles the remote server and the Claude Code engine for Linux x64 and arm64 hosts, and Claude Desktop uploads both over SFTP. Hosts on other platforms still need the download, so an offline-installed device that cannot reach `downloads.claude.ai` fails the session with a message saying the installer doesn't include remote components for that platform.
360361* The host must reach your inference endpoint and, if configured, your OTLP collector, plus whatever the user's own work needs. With the regular installer, it downloads the Claude Code engine from `downloads.claude.ai` when it can; when that fails, Claude Desktop downloads the engine on the device and uploads it over SFTP. Unless you disabled telemetry, the engine on the host also reports to the same Anthropic hosts as a local Code session (see [Telemetry and egress](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/telemetry.md)). Blocking them does not affect the session.
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363### Hosts that allow one session per connection
364
365A device can connect to a host whose `sshd_config` sets `MaxSessions 1` only when the device's OpenSSH client makes the connection:
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367* **macOS and Linux devices**: the device's OpenSSH client is the default. The device also needs Claude Desktop 3.1623.0 or later.
368* **Windows devices**: the built-in client is the default, and it can't connect to such a host. To have the device's OpenSSH client make the connection, see [Prepare Windows devices for the OpenSSH client](#prepare-windows-devices-for-the-openssh-client).
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370Connecting to a host with this limit changes what the SSH server's log shows and how often devices sign in:
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372* **Refused sessions**: when a macOS or Linux device first connects to the host, the SSH server's log shows a sign-in followed by `no more sessions`. Claude Desktop remembers the limit for 7 days at a time: at the device's next connection after that, the log shows the sign-in and the refusal again. The refusal is how Claude Desktop learns of the limit, so you don't need to act on it. A Windows device that connects through the device's OpenSSH client causes no such refusal.
373* **More sign-ins**: each time a device connects or reconnects, it signs in at least twice, to run commands and to transfer files. Expect at least one more sign-in for each terminal tab, and for each Claude Desktop session in which the user runs commands that start with `!`.
374* **One-time codes**: if the host also asks for a one-time code, users get a prompt at each sign-in for a connection or a terminal tab. Commands that start with `!` fail on that host, so have users run commands in a terminal tab.
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362376### Prepare Windows devices for the OpenSSH client
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364378On Windows devices, the app's built-in SSH client makes the SSH connection by default. The device's OpenSSH client makes it when you set [`sshTransport`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#sshtransport) (beta) to `system-openssh`.
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499513SSH connected, but Claude Desktop couldn't place or start the remote server or the engine on the host. Select **View details** on the failure card to read the app's own message, which can end with a code in square brackets. Match the code, or the start of the message:
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501515* **`[SFTP_UNAVAILABLE]`**: the host's SSH server refused the SFTP subsystem. Enable `Subsystem sftp` in the server's `sshd_config`.
502* **`[SESSION_LIMIT]`**: the host's SSH server refused to open another session on the connection. Raise `MaxSessions` in the server's `sshd_config`, and reload the SSH server. See [Host requirements](#host-requirements).
516* **`[SESSION_LIMIT]`**: the host's SSH server refused to open another session on the connection. If the host has to keep its `MaxSessions` limit, update the macOS or Linux device to Claude Desktop 3.1623.0 or later, and see [Hosts that allow one session per connection](#hosts-that-allow-one-session-per-connection). Otherwise, raise `MaxSessions` in the server's `sshd_config`, for example to OpenSSH's default of 10, and reload the SSH server.
503517* **`[SFTP_NOT_STARTED]`**: the host's SSH server accepted the request for SFTP, but the SFTP server ended before its first answer, or text arrived in place of that answer. In a terminal on the device, run `sftp` with the same host, for example `sftp [email protected]`, to see what stops it. Then check the settings and files that the message names.
504518* **`[EXEC_NO_INPUT]`**: the host's SSH server ran the app's command but passed it no input, which setup and the session's own link need. In a terminal on the device, run `echo hi | ssh` with the same host and `cat`, for example `echo hi | ssh [email protected] cat`. It prints `hi` on a host that passes input. Have the host's administrator let commands run over SSH receive input.
505519* **`[ENOSPC]` or `[EDQUOT]`**: a disk is full, or a quota is used up. In a message that starts with `Couldn't prepare the deploy locally`, the disk is the device's. In any other message it is the host's, so free space in the SSH user's home directory. [Host requirements](#host-requirements) gives the space the app needs.
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