Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop (the claude.ai Electron app) is a different product from Claude Code and Claude Cowork. Do not fold Desktop or Cowork sessions into CLAUDE_CODE.

Tool	Source tool	How it is collected
Claude Code	CLAUDE_CODE	~/.claude/projects JSONL
Claude Desktop	CLAUDE_DESKTOP	Local Desktop application logs
Claude Cowork	CLAUDE_COWORK	OTLP logs to the manager

What is ingested

Desktop does not write Claude Code session JSONL. The collector tails Desktop logs (discovered OS-specific dirs; Cloud enroll enables claude_desktop by default).

It only creates or updates a task when it sees:

• A https://claude.ai/chat/{uuid} URL, or
• An MCP tool_approval_gate line

Typed follow-ups that never emit those lines produce no new ingest. Heartbeat can still list CLAUDE_DESKTOP as an installed collector. That is healthy presence, not a missed chat.

Task completion

Desktop does not send a session-end event. The manager closes idle ACTIVE Desktop tasks after agent.session.idle-complete-minutes (installer default 30). Task detail shows a notice when that happens.

Dashboard

Filter Tasks by tool Claude Desktop. Status Stale on Collectors is about heartbeats, not about whether Desktop wrote a chat URL.

Setup

• Cloud: enroll the collector — claude_desktop is on in the default config.
• Lite / Enterprise: enable collector type claude_desktop if it is not already on.

Related

Collector matrix · Claude Cowork