Claude Desktop Release Notes: v1.1.3647 → v1.1.3830

Build dates: 2026-02-19 → 2026-02-20

Executive Summary

This release introduces a Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) browser automation engine for the preview pane, adds SSH connectivity support, and expands Office Add-in integration to Windows. It also brings a new syncSkills IPC method, auto-verify controls for preview instances, and several session/hook model improvements — alongside routine version bumps, dependency updates, and a full IPC channel UUID rotation.

Changes by Category

New Features

CDP-Based Preview Automation (CDPTools)

A full Chrome DevTools Protocol automation engine was added to the preview pane, replacing a previous stub/placeholder implementation. It covers:

• Screenshots — capture the current preview state as an image
• DOM inspection — query and inspect page elements
• Element interaction — click and fill form fields programmatically
• Accessibility tree capture — retrieve the a11y tree for the rendered page
• Viewport emulation — simulate different screen sizes
• Network introspection — observe network activity

Port-conflict handling was also introduced: a configurable autoPort setting and a PortInUseError type allow the system to automatically resolve port collisions when spinning up preview servers.

SSH Connectivity (@ant/claude-ssh)

A new internal package, @ant/claude-ssh, was added as a dependency. This gives Claude Desktop the ability to connect to remote machines over SSH, likely enabling SSH-based MCP (Model Context Protocol) transport for remote tool use.

Skills Synchronization (syncSkills)

A new syncSkills() IPC method was added to the LocalAgentModeSessions interface. This allows the renderer process to trigger synchronization of skills into the main process's local agent session layer.

Auto-Verify Controls for Preview

Two new IPC methods — getAutoVerify and setAutoVerify — were added to the claude.web.Launch interface. These allow the renderer to get and set a flag controlling whether preview/server instances are automatically trusted without requiring explicit user confirmation each time.

Windows Support for Office Add-in Integration

Office Add-in operations (open, close, focus document, run code, platform guard) and the focusOfficeDocument function all gained Windows-specific code paths. The Office Add-in MCP server now activates on both macOS and Windows (previously macOS-only).

New Session Fields

Several new fields were added to the session model:

• turnHookDurationMs — tracks how long turn hooks take to execute
• sessionSource — records where a session originated
• statsStore — exposes session statistics as an observable store
• promptId — associates a session turn with a specific prompt identifier

Plugin Hook commands Schema

The plugin hook schema gained a typed commands array supporting four action types: shell commands, prompt actions, agent actions, and HTTP actions. Previously these commands were dropped during serialization.

Bug Fixes

translate-x-1 CSS Class Was Non-Functional

The Tailwind utility class .translate-x-1 had a generation bug across all renderer windows (main window, quick window, find-in-page, about window): the class set the --tw-translate-x CSS custom property but omitted the transform declaration that actually consumes it. The element would not visually move. The missing transform line has been restored, making the class functional.

Refactors / Internal Changes

IPC Channel UUID Rotation (Breaking Internal Change)

Every IPC channel string across the entire application had its embedded namespace UUID rotated from df41ea1f-f17e-4da3-be44-88100ea9a5f4 to 66b33f8d-73eb-4218-8fdc-1e0f0c86f16b. This is an intentional versioning mechanism: the UUID scopes all IPC messages to a specific build, preventing a stale renderer from accidentally communicating with a newer main process. The main and renderer processes must be on the same build to function correctly.

thinkingConfig API Shape Change

The maxThinkingTokens numeric parameter for extended thinking was replaced with a structured thinkingConfig object that supports three named modes: "enabled", "disabled", and "adaptive". This is a breaking API change for any code that previously passed a raw token count.

Delegate Mode Removed

The "delegate" session mode was removed from the session model.

Ad-hoc Timing Replaced with OpenTelemetry Spans

Slow-operation timing instrumentation was migrated from ad-hoc measurements to structured OpenTelemetry-style spans, improving observability consistency.

Auto Permission Mode Gate Removed

Auto permission mode is no longer blocked in non-Nest builds. Auto mode is now available universally.

Remote Plugin Operations Feature-Flagged

Remote plugin operations are now gated behind a feature flag, allowing controlled rollout.

New Pixel-Nudge CSS Utilities

Two new Tailwind arbitrary-value translation classes (translate-x-[1px] and translate-x-[3px]) and a new border-radius class (rounded-[4px]) were added across all renderer stylesheets. The left-[1px] positioning class was simultaneously removed. This suggests UI elements previously nudged with absolute positioning are now using CSS transforms for alignment, which compose better with other transforms.

Dependency Updates

Notable dependency notes:

• @anthropic-ai/mcpb introduces a binary (protobuf) transport layer for MCP, suggesting a move away from JSON-only MCP communication toward a more efficient wire format.
• @anthropic-ai/sdk being promoted to an explicit dependency (rather than a transitive one) indicates the app is now directly calling the Anthropic REST API client rather than relying on it being pulled in indirectly.
• The stable and future agent SDK slots are now temporarily in sync at 0.2.49, indicating the team is waiting for a 0.2.50+ dev build before diverging them again.

Build / Config Changes

• App version: 1.1.3647 → 1.1.3830 (delta: +183 build numbers)
• Claude Code CLI version: 2.1.49 (updated)
• Agent SDK version: 0.2.49 (updated)
• Sentry release SHA: 8f7c53e009d62927d53b39524d8fd204b2bb8b10 → d2af569a3bfd18b339eb5b59276b2cc6c16289a7 (routine build artifact; all renderer windows and the echo/preload scripts were updated)
• Vite content hashes rotated across all renderer bundles (main_window, about_window, find_in_page, quick_window) reflecting the JavaScript changes above
• Minifier variable renames cascaded through mainView.js and the preload scripts as a side-effect of code additions/removals shifting the minifier's name-allocation counter. No semantic changes.

Confidence Assessment

Wrapper/Packaging Changes

The following commits were made to the build wrapper and packaging between v1.3.12+claude1.1.3647 and v1.3.12+claude1.1.3830:

• Update Claude Desktop download URLs to version 1.1.3830 (5d857f7)