--desktop
A Claude Code CLI flag, read out of the shipped bundle. It has been in the build since v2.1.285, including the newest one read.
--desktop opens the Claude Desktop app and now errors when combined with background or worktree options
Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.285.
In the changelogs
4Releases whose published page names --desktop.
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v2.1.285
New --desktop flag, and background commands now accept options in front of them
--desktopopens the Claude Desktop app and now errors when combined with background or worktree optionsfound in this entry's text, named in this entry
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v2.1.285
New
--desktopoption opens a session in the Claude Desktop appclaude --desktopopens the session in the Claude Desktop app instead of the terminal, and works with--continueor--resumefound in this entry's text, named in this entry
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v2.1.285
Open the Claude Desktop app from the terminal with
claude --desktopThe new
claude --desktopflag opens the Claude Desktop app, and can resume a session there with--continueor--resumefound in this entry's text, named in this entry
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v2.1.285
--desktoprejects subcommands, and SDK sign-in checks allowed providersClaude Code refuses --desktop alongside a subcommand, and blocks SDK sign-in when managed settings do not allow the Anthropic API
found in this entry's text, named in this entry
First cited
3The earliest release whose published evidence quoted --desktop was v2.1.285, 29 Sep 2026. That is the oldest release this project wrote about it, so it is a floor on the name's age and not the release that introduced it. It is not a presence reading: which builds carried the name is the table below.
Presence across releases
1Build by build
1One row per release since the first build this name was read out of. Absent means the build was read and the name was not in it, never mined means no bundle for that release was ever archived, and a declared type or a default is only ever what that release's own bundle stated.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the CLI flag does. All CLI flags.