Claude provider probe creates “Claude Code URL Handler.app” in Launchpad

[callmepopo]

Description

When enabling the Claude provider in CodexBar, CodexBar launches a Claude CLI probe through CodexBarClaudeWatchdog. This appears to trigger Claude Code's deep-link protocol registration and creates a new app bundle:

~/Applications/Claude Code URL Handler.app

The generated app has no icon, so it appears in Launchpad as a blank/unknown app. This is confusing because the user only enabled Claude usage tracking in CodexBar and did not intentionally install or open a new application.

Environment

• CodexBar: 0.27.0, build 65
• Claude Code CLI: 2.1.144
• macOS: local user Applications directory is ~/Applications
• Claude provider source in CodexBar: auto

Reproduction Steps

1. Remove or move ~/Applications/Claude Code URL Handler.app.

2. Restart Dock/Launchpad if needed.

3. Open CodexBar Settings → Providers.

4. Enable or select the Claude provider.

5. Observe CodexBar starts a short-lived process similar to:

   CodexBarClaudeWatchdog -- ~/.npm-global/bin/claude --allowed-tools TERM_PROGRAM=Apple_Terminal

6. Observe ~/Applications/Claude Code URL Handler.app is recreated.

7. Launchpad now shows an extra blank/no-icon app.

Actual Behavior

CodexBar's Claude usage probe indirectly creates a visible Claude Code URL Handler.app in Launchpad.

The app bundle contains:

• CFBundleIdentifier: com.anthropic.claude-code-url-handler
• URL scheme: claude-cli
• executable symlink: claude -> .../@anthropic-ai/claude-code/bin/claude.exe

Expected Behavior

Background usage probing should not create a user-visible app in Launchpad.

Possible fixes:

• Launch Claude CLI probes in a way that does not register the deep-link handler.
• Respect or recommend Claude Code's documented disableDeepLinkRegistration setting.
• Add a CodexBar setting or documentation note for users who want Claude usage tracking without the Launchpad app side effect.
• If this is unavoidable, show a clear explanation in CodexBar's Claude provider UI.

Additional Context

Claude Code documents disableDeepLinkRegistration as a setting to prevent registering the claude-cli:// protocol handler with the operating system:

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/configuration

This suggests the extra app is not required for CodexBar's usage display itself; it is a side effect of launching Claude Code for probing.

[steipete]

Fixed on main in 235c425.

CodexBar now launches headless Claude CLI probes from its app-owned probe directory and seeds .claude/settings.local.json with disableDeepLinkRegistration: "disable" before starting Claude. That covers the persistent CLI usage session and explicit one-shot Claude probe/version runs, including CLAUDE_CLI_PATH overrides that point directly at native versioned Claude executables, without changing the user's global Claude config or moving interactive login into the probe workspace.

Verified:

• swift test --filter ClaudeProbeWorkingDirectoryTests --filter "claude runner"
• make check
• Codex review clean
• Live CLI smoke against local Claude 2.1.114 seeded the probe settings and left ~/Applications/Claude Code URL Handler.app mtime unchanged.

Thanks for the clear repro!