[BUG] Claude in Chrome — MCP navigate blocks domains that are in "Your approved sites"

[AllisonChirinos1]

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 add a domain to Claude in Chrome settings → Permissions → "Your approved sites", the domain appears in the approved list (with a recent "Last used" timestamp), but mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__navigate calls to that domain still return "Navigation to this domain is not allowed".

I've verified the following:

The domain is clearly listed under "Your approved sites" in extension settings
Chrome's chrome://extensions site access for the extension is set to "On all sites"
I manually visited each domain in Chrome with the extension running (loads normally in the browser itself)
I fully closed and reopened Chrome
The issue persists across multiple sessions over the past month
Affected domains in my testing (all listed as approved, all blocked from MCP navigation):

theverandahantigua.com
stjamesclubantigua.com
bluewaters.net
www.royaltonresorts.com / royaltonresorts.com
A different domain that is in the approved list (theescapeantigua.com) works correctly, so the bug appears to be inconsistent rather than universal.

Environment:

Claude in Chrome extension: v1.0.69
Browser: Chrome on Windows 11 Pro (10.0.22631)

What Should Happen?

When a domain is listed under "Your approved sites" in Claude in Chrome settings, MCP navigate calls to that domain should succeed and load the page — matching the behavior shown for domains that currently work. The approved-sites list and the MCP navigation guard should use the same source of truth.

Error Messages/Logs

Navigation to this domain is not allowed

This error is returned by every mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__navigate call to the affected domains, regardless of whether the domain appears in "Your approved sites" or has been manually visited in Chrome.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Claude in Chrome extension (v1.0.69) and sign in.

2. Open Claude in Chrome settings → Permissions → Your approved sites.

3. Add a domain to the approved list — e.g. theverandahantigua.com. Confirm it appears in the list.

4. In chrome://extensions, open the Claude extension and set Site access → On all sites.

5. Open a new tab in Chrome and manually navigate to https://theverandahantigua.com/. Confirm the page loads normally in the browser.

6. Fully close Chrome and reopen it.

7. From Claude (Desktop or Claude Code), invoke the MCP tool:
   mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__navigate
   url: https://theverandahantigua.com/
   tabId:

8. Observe: the call returns "Navigation to this domain is not allowed" even though the domain is in the approved list.

Additional notes:

• Reproduced consistently with these domains: theverandahantigua.com, stjamesclubantigua.com, bluewaters.net, www.royaltonresorts.com, royaltonresorts.com.
• A different approved domain (theescapeantigua.com) does not exhibit the bug — MCP navigation to it succeeds — so the approved-sites list works for some domains but not others.
• The issue has persisted for over a month across multiple extension updates, Chrome restarts, and re-additions of the domains.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

1.1.4498

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

No response

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] reporting.xero.com blocked by Claude in Chrome MCP — "Navigation to this domain is not allowed #51850
2. Claude in Chrome blocks access to aircraft-engineer-sakura.com with "Navigation to this domain is not allowed" #52994
3. Claude in Chrome extension blocks navigation to vercel.com and github.com #47388

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[AllisonChirinos1]

This is not a duplicate. For reference I was using the desktop app.

[atq-au]

There is no option in the app settings to add a site to 'Your approved sites'. You can only remove them. Hundreds are having this issue.

[chet-beep]

Confirming this on a Team/Enterprise org account (Windows, latest extension), with a side-by-side that isolates the cause:

Same browser, same account, same mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__navigate connector — two clients, opposite behavior:

First-party Cowork / desktop client: navigating to an un-approved domain renders the "Allow Claude to use the browser on ?" prompt → click Allow → works. Functions on any org-allowed domain.
External MCP-bridge / Claude Code client: the same navigation returns a terminal "Navigation to this domain is not allowed" — the approval prompt never renders, so there is no way to approve. Only a single pre-seeded internal domain succeeds; everything else (including google.com) is hard-denied.
Key findings:

The two clients use independent permission stores — approving a domain via Cowork's prompt does not unblock it for the MCP-bridge client.
The MCP-bridge client's allowlist is server-side: the one working domain survives a full extension uninstall/reinstall (empty local state) and appears in no local store (only a transient tabGroups record). Local edits to "Your approved sites" / permissionStorage have no effect on this path.
Ruled out (no effect on the MCP-bridge path): org Claude-in-Chrome allow/block policy (set to allow-all), permissionStorage edits, full reinstall, managed settings.json (empty), Capabilities domain-allowlist (explicitly excludes MCP connectors), bypassPermissionsGateByAccount + org "Act without asking", and WebFetch egress (navigation uses the Chrome connector, not server-side fetch).
Net: the approval prompt that populates the allowlist works for the first-party client but never renders for the Claude Code / MCP-bridge client, and that client reads a separate server-side allowlist it cannot populate. Matches #50606 / #59723 / #64538. Blocker for org-wide Claude Code rollout where browser automation is needed. (Org/account identifiers available privately to Anthropic.)