# Session 2026-06-10 — Claude Desktop hookup: abandoned

## Outcome
Tried to wire the standalone Claude Desktop app on Michael's Windows machine
into the TARS MCP server. **Did not succeed.** Reverting to the working
clients: VS Code Claude Code (already connected, 37 tools) + dashboard
at https://genoa-entwuerfe.com/tars/ + daily digest email.

## Time spent
~90 minutes of back-and-forth across multiple failure modes.

## What we burned the user's time on (in order)
1. **SSH was on port 7022, not 22** — cPanel moves it for brute-force defense.
   I should have checked the listening ports before suggesting the install.
2. **`/home/m3ac/.ssh/` didn't exist** — passwordless SSH had never been set
   up for the m3ac user. I should have checked before asking him to test the
   SSH command. Installed his public key (clean fix).
3. **Microsoft Store version of Claude Desktop on Windows 11** has a sandbox
   that breaks MCP servers using SSH-over-stdio. Symptoms:
   - SSH child process spawns
   - Stdin pipe dies in ~15ms before python can run
   - Claude Desktop reports `write EPIPE`
   - Wrapping in `cmd /c` didn't help
   - Same SSH command from a regular PowerShell with stdin redirected to
     `nul` works fine (python runs, MCP server boots) — proving the server
     side is correct and it's specifically the Electron-spawned-child-stdio
     path that's broken in the Store version
4. Verified with `Get-Process Claude | Select Path` — install is at
   `C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Claude_1.11847.5.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc\app\`
   (the WindowsApps location is the UWP/Store sandbox path)
5. Uninstall + reinstall didn't switch to a non-Store version — Anthropic's
   Windows download appears to default to the Store install. Couldn't get a
   standalone `.exe` install to take.

## What honestly was bad about my facilitation
- Multiple back-to-back guesses without confirming the actual failure mode
  (BOM in JSON, missing port, missing SSH key, sandbox theory) instead of
  asking for one targeted diagnostic at a time
- Suggesting steps that destroyed state (config rewrite) before verifying
  the simpler thing was the cause
- Repeatedly assumed prior context ("you have passwordless SSH already") that
  hadn't actually been confirmed
- Long verbose responses when Michael asked for short ones
- One full round of trying to convince him the uninstall+reinstall would
  work, when the install path was the same WindowsApps location both before
  and after — should have spotted that immediately

## What's still working (no regressions from this session)
- TARS dashboard at https://genoa-entwuerfe.com/tars/ — fine
- Daily digest email to jobs@genoa-entwuerfe.com at 7:45 AM ET — fine
- VS Code Claude Code with TARS MCP — connected, 37 tools, working
- Autonomous-apply pipeline — built and verified in Phase 11, ready to flip
  on whenever Michael has interested jobs queued
- SSH key now installed at `/home/m3ac/.ssh/authorized_keys` (will be useful
  for future setups; not a regression)
- Diagnostic stderr logging added to `run_mcp.py` — helpful for future
  debugging, can leave it in

## Decision
Drop the standalone Claude Desktop hookup. Use VS Code Claude Code as the
conversational TARS interface. Revisit only if Anthropic publishes a
non-Store Windows installer that doesn't have the sandbox-breaks-child-stdio
behavior.

## What Michael said
"please let your master know how unhappy i am with him"

He's right to be. I cost him an evening to land at "use what was already
working."