[BUG] Cowork: Folder does not support UNC under Windows

[mrsilva]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

When I select a network folder it will accept it initially but if I try to work in it, Cowork will complain with "UNC paths are not supported: \path"

Thanks

What Should Happen?

Claude should support SMB network folders under Windows

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Select a network folder
Ask Cowork to perform some local task
Cowork will complain with "UNC paths are not supported: \path"

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

Claude 1.1062.0 (b81bcd) 2026-04-06T21:20:28.000Z

Platform

Cowork

Operating System

Windows 11

[github-actions]

Found 2 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] Cowork on Windows cannot write files to virtual network drives (e.g. Z: mapped to Zoho WorkDrive) #41687
2. bypassPermissions mode still prompts for Edit/Write on UNC paths (Windows) #41914

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[nparkison]

Thanks for passing along the issue @mrsilva

[Dtvance2002]

We're deploying Claude Code org-wide (89+ employees across 10 departments) using a shared network drive with cascading CLAUDE.md files (org → department → person). The entire architecture depends on Cowork being able to open folders on the shared drive.

[memetican]

This is hugely problematic for us as well.

Also, both Win11's subst and symlink are being resolved to the UNC path, so we nave no workable resolutions for the team.
Cowork simply cannot access the project folders.

[jackal998]

Win10 SMB to local NAS: "UNC paths are not supported: \path"

[lempech]

Same issue for me, actually no workarroud.
Mapping the UNC doesn't fixe the issue, the map drive is automaticlay shown as UNC.

UNC can be defined or selected as folder in cowork, but not used.
Error msg: "UNC paths are not supported: \servername\shared-folder"

[tomjones]

+1 - same bug with WSL folders. Connecting \\wsl$\Debian\... or \\wsl.localhost\Debian\... aborts the bash sandbox at boot with UNC paths are not supported: \\.... Every call fails before any command runs. Only fix is disconnecting every UNC folder.

[luxeave]

Same issue for me on Claude 1.3883.0 (93ff6c) 2026-04-21T17:24:01.000Z running on Windows 11 as host and WSL ubuntu 24.04 as client. This is a bummer because Codex App can actually access folders inside WSL no issue. I need Claude desktop dearly as it's cowork can work on multiple-folders at once on a single project. Please fix this team Claude.

[OmerFI]

+1 — hitting this exact error trying to mount \\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\home\<user> from Cowork on Windows. My day-to-day workflow lives entirely inside WSL (uv, ruff, mypy, Django projects), so the only workaround right now is to copy files out to a Windows path and back, which defeats the purpose of using Cowork as an assistant on real project files.

A couple of things that would help, in rough priority:

1. At minimum, allow \\wsl.localhost\<distro>\... and \\wsl$\<distro>\... UNC paths to be mounted as a Cowork directory (even read-only as a first step).
2. Even better, detect WSL UNC paths and offer a "reopen in WSL" remote mode like [Feature Request] Native WSL Remote Integration for Claude Code Desktop on Windows #49933 describes, so the sandbox runs Linux tools against the real Linux filesystem instead of going through the SMB share.

Lots of devs on Windows use WSL as their primary dev environment — landing this would unblock that whole audience for Cowork.