Connect Claude Desktop to Claude for Government

Who this is for: IT administrators who install Claude Desktop on agency devices and connect it to Claude for Government.

A fresh install of Claude Desktop connects to claude.ai. To connect it to Claude for Government instead, each device needs one managed setting that tells the app where to reach Claude for Government. Once that setting is in place, everything else that governs the app (which products and features are available, model access, connectors, usage limits, the Claude Desktop banner) is controlled through the tenant and organization configuration pages in this portal and delivered to each user when they sign in.

Choose how to deploy

There are two ways to get Claude Desktop installed and connected to Claude for Government. They differ in who runs the installer, what rights that requires, and how the setting reaches the app.

	Configure a single machine	Deploy to your fleet
Best for	Confirming the app works on a representative device before a wider rollout, or setting up a small group of devices by hand	Production rollout across your agency
Who installs the app	A person at the device	Your device management system (for example Intune, Configuration Manager, or Jamf)
Administrator rights to install	Needed by the person doing each install	Not needed by end users; the management system installs with elevated rights
How the address is set	Entered in the app’s built-in configuration window	Pushed as a configuration profile alongside the app

For a production rollout, use your device management system so end users never need administrator rights. The single-machine path is for testing first or for a small group you set up by hand, with an administrator doing each install. That path can also export a ready-made profile for your management system, so it is a useful starting point even when the fleet path is your destination.

Before you begin

Confirm each of the following before you start either path.

User accounts exist. Claude Desktop signs users in to the same accounts as this portal. For each user, including your own test account, check with your tenant administrators that the user can sign in (a routing rule covers them) and has a seat tier with at least one model enabled.
Devices can reach Claude for Government. Claude Desktop on every device must reach the Claude for Government host over HTTPS on port 443. That one host carries the app’s configuration and chat traffic.
Browsers can reach sign-in. Sign-in happens in the user’s default web browser, not in the app. Browsers on each device must reach the Claude for Government host, its sign-in service (a separate host that your Anthropic representative provides), and your agency’s identity provider.
The device meets Claude Desktop’s requirements. See the Claude Desktop system requirements for macOS and Windows device requirements. For a Windows fleet, work through the Windows fleet checklist, which covers the Virtual Machine Platform feature that Cowork needs along with the installer, policy, and network prerequisites.
Windows devices used for Code have Git for Windows. On Windows, only the Code part of Claude Desktop needs Git for Windows. Chat and Cowork work without it. Install Git on the devices whose users will work in Code, or turn Code in Claude Desktop off under Product availability so that users are not prompted to install Git.
You can install the app. Installing by hand needs administrator rights on each device; see Configure a single machine for what that means on each platform. Installing through your device management system does not, because the management system installs with elevated rights. The macOS deployment guide and the Windows deployment guide cover where to download the installer and how to distribute it.
The app is current. The configuration mechanism on this page requires Claude Desktop 1.10628.0 or later.

The managed setting

The setting is called bootstrapUrl, and its value is the Claude for Government host followed by the fixed path /gateway-api/user/bootstrap.

https://<claude-for-government-host>/gateway-api/user/bootstrap

The Claude for Government host is the same domain name you use to access Claude for Government. If you are unsure of it, ask your Anthropic representative. The app uses the address exactly as entered; it fetches each user’s configuration from it and starts sign-in from it, so include the full path.

How the app uses the bootstrap address

The address is the same for every device and user in your agency and carries no credentials or user information, so the same profile is safe to push to your whole fleet. A request to the address without a signed-in session is refused. When a user chooses Sign in with your organization, the app asks the Claude for Government host to start a sign-in, shows the pairing code it receives, and opens the host’s sign-in page in the user’s default browser. That page asks for the user’s agency email address, then sends the browser to the sign-in service and on to your agency’s identity provider. After signing in, the user acknowledges the system-use notification, confirms that the code shown in the browser matches the one in the app, and approves. Claude for Government then issues the app a session for that user, which the app stores encrypted on the device. The app presents that session, and nothing from the profile, when it downloads the user’s configuration from this address and when it sends chat traffic to the same host. It re-checks the configuration about every 30 minutes and at each launch. A session lasts until the user has gone without using Claude for longer than the Session idle timeout your tenant administrators set, which is 24 hours unless they change it, or until it reaches the Maximum session length if one is set. Using Claude extends the session, but leaving the app open on an idle, locked, or sleeping device does not. When a session has ended, the app keeps the user’s configuration and asks them to sign in again, with a message and a Sign in again button while the app is open, or with the sign-in screen the next time it starts, and it reloads the configuration once they sign in. Claude Desktop 1.34493.0 or later shows these prompts. Earlier versions can report an ended session as a Configuration sync issue, so update them. The configuration that the app downloads for a user includes the following settings, all of which you manage in this portal.

What the app receives	Where it is set
Which of Chat, Cowork, and Code the user can open, and whether Advanced file analysis is on in Chat	Product availability on the Config page
The models the user can choose	The user’s seat tier
Connectors, plugins, and the settings for the built-in tools	The tool and connector cards on the Config page
The hosts that tools may reach	Allowed network hosts
The folders a user can choose as a workspace	Allowed workspace folders
The banner shown across the top of the app	Claude Desktop banner
Where the app sends your agency’s own telemetry, if you have set a collector	Telemetry endpoint (Claude Desktop)
Whether automatic updates are blocked, and the restart deadline for an update the app has downloaded	Block automatic updates and Restart deadline for updates on the Config page

Configure a single machine

Installing by hand needs administrator rights on the device. On Windows, the installer registers a Windows system service, so it must run as a local administrator. On macOS, installing to the shared Applications folder requires an administrator. On Linux, installing the package requires root.

Claude Desktop has a built-in configuration window that is hidden until you enable developer mode. These steps use it to set the address on one machine without any management tooling.

Launch the app without signing in

Install Claude Desktop on the test machine and open it. On Windows, run the installer while signed in as a local administrator. The claude.ai sign-in screen appears; this is expected before the app is configured. Stay on this screen.

Enable developer mode

From the Help menu, choose Troubleshooting, then Enable Developer Mode, and confirm the prompt. On Windows the Help menu is under the application menu (☰) on the sign-in screen. The app relaunches with a Developer menu added.

Open the configuration window

From the Developer menu, choose Configure Third-Party Inference. This is the correct option for Claude for Government despite the name. The window opens on its Connection section.

Enter the bootstrap address

In the window’s left sidebar, click Source, which on an unconfigured machine appears last in the list and is dimmed but is still clickable. Enter the full address from the section above in the Bootstrap config URL field. You do not need to change any other field, because Claude for Government supplies the provider, credentials, and model list after sign-in. A Trust bootstrap-delivered settings switch appears once the field has a value. Leave it off; the Allow the gateway address step below explains what it does.

Apply and sign in

Click Apply Changes and let the app relaunch. The sign-in screen now offers Sign in with your organization alongside the claude.ai option. Choose it. The app shows a pairing code and opens the sign-in page in your browser. Sign in with your agency credentials, confirm that the code in the browser matches the one in the app, and approve. The app picks up the session.

Allow the gateway address

After sign-in, the app opens a small Apply settings from your organization? window that lists a Gateway base URL. The window opens without taking keyboard focus, so if your browser is still in front, switch back to Claude to find it. Expand Gateway base URL and confirm that the address is on your Claude for Government host, then click Allow. The app applies your organization’s settings and connects, and it does not ask again unless the gateway address later changes.The app asks because you entered the bootstrap address by hand rather than through device management, and it applies none of your organization’s settings until you click Allow. Choosing Quit, pressing Esc, or closing the window quits the app, and it asks again the next time it opens. If the address is not on your host, do not click Allow. Leave the window open, reopen the configuration window from the Developer menu, correct the Bootstrap config URL in its Source section, and click Apply Changes so that the app relaunches with the corrected address.The Trust bootstrap-delivered settings switch in the Source section turns this prompt off. With the switch on, the app trusts everything your Claude for Government host delivers without asking, including connectors and helper scripts that run on the device. That is the same trust the app extends when the bootstrap address comes from machine-wide device management.Most single-machine tests do not need the switch, because the app asks only once. If you do turn it on, first confirm that the bootstrap address is on your Claude for Government host. For the other settings this prompt can cover, see Keys that require user consent.

Run the verification checklist

Work through Confirm it worked below.

After the test, the same configuration window has an Export menu that produces files ready for your management system: a .mobileconfig profile for macOS, a .reg file for Windows, an ADMX template for Intune or Group Policy, and a Profile Manifest for Jamf. Before exporting, turn on Disable Claude.ai sign-in in the window’s Workspace section so the exported profile hides the claude.ai option on managed devices, and make sure Trust bootstrap-delivered settings in the Source section is off so the exported files do not carry it.

Deploy to your fleet

When your device management system deploys Claude Desktop, end users receive the app without running an installer themselves. The management system installs the package with the system or root account on each platform, so end users need no administrator rights and see no elevation prompt. Push both the app installer and the configuration profile below through the same system. The recommended profile contains two keys. In the macOS and Windows profiles below, write every value as a string exactly as shown, including booleans as the strings "true" or "false"; the Linux file uses native JSON types, as shown.

Key	Value	Purpose
`bootstrapUrl`	`https://<claude-for-government-host>/gateway-api/user/bootstrap`	Required. Points the app at Claude for Government.
`disableDeploymentModeChooser`	`"true"`	Recommended. Hides the claude.ai sign-in option so users can only sign in to Claude for Government. Like any recognized key other than the automatic update settings, it also marks the device as managed (see Order of deployment).

No other keys are needed to connect the app; Claude for Government supplies everything else per user after sign-in. If your agency distributes Claude Desktop updates itself, Automatic updates below describes one more key to add. The profile contains no secrets, only a host. Keys documented for other Claude plans, such as forceLoginOrgUUID or loginSsoOrgDomain, apply only to claude.ai workspaces and are not used here.

macOS

Claude Desktop reads managed preferences in the com.anthropic.claudefordesktop domain. Deploy a configuration profile that sets the two keys in that domain as strings.

<key>bootstrapUrl</key>
<!-- substitute the Claude for Government host -->
<string>https://<claude-for-government-host>/gateway-api/user/bootstrap</string>
<key>disableDeploymentModeChooser</key>
<string>true</string>

Most device management consoles, including Jamf and Intune, build the profile around these keys for you. For a complete .mobileconfig ready to upload, use the Export menu described in the single-machine path.

Windows

Claude Desktop reads string (REG_SZ) values by name under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Claude. Deliver them with Intune, Group Policy, or any tool that writes machine policy. The ADMX template from the Export menu makes both keys available in the policy editor. As a .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Claude]
; substitute the Claude for Government host
"bootstrapUrl"="https://<claude-for-government-host>/gateway-api/user/bootstrap"
"disableDeploymentModeChooser"="true"

The .reg file from the Export menu targets HKEY_CURRENT_USER, which is correct for single-machine testing. For fleet deployment, deliver the values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as shown here. After a user signs in, Claude for Government sends the app the address to use for chat traffic, which the app shows as Gateway base URL. When the registry values are under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, the app accepts that address without asking the user. When they are under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, the app asks each user once to allow it, as described under Keys that require user consent. Have each user confirm that the address is on your Claude for Government host before they click Allow. To approve the address in advance on a test device configured under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, first confirm that the bootstrapUrl value is on your Claude for Government host, then add "trustBootstrapDelivery"="true" next to it under the same key. That value tells the app to trust everything your Claude for Government host delivers without asking, including connectors and helper scripts that run on the device, which is the same trust the app extends when bootstrapUrl is under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. If you later move a test device’s values to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, move all of them, because once any value exists under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Claude the app ignores HKEY_CURRENT_USER entirely.

Cowork, the agentic workspace in Claude Desktop, requires the Virtual Machine Platform Windows optional feature. Enable that feature through your device management system before rollout. On a device where the feature is not enabled, Cowork is unavailable until someone turns the feature on, which requires administrator rights that a standard user does not have. Chat works regardless of this feature. The Windows fleet checklist lists the remaining Windows prerequisites.

Linux

Place a JSON file at /etc/claude-desktop/managed-settings.json containing the same keys at the top level.

{
  "bootstrapUrl": "https://<claude-for-government-host>/gateway-api/user/bootstrap",
  "disableDeploymentModeChooser": true
}

The file must be a regular file (not a symlink), and the file and its directory must be owned by root and must not be group- or world-writable. If the permissions are wrong, the app rejects the file, logs the reason to main.log, and treats the device as managed but unreadable, so local settings are also disabled until the permissions are corrected and the app is relaunched.

Order of deployment

Deploy the configuration before the app wherever you can. A user whose device already has the profile opens Claude Desktop for the first time and lands directly on the Claude for Government sign-in screen, with no opportunity to sign in to claude.ai by mistake.

Once bootstrapUrl, disableDeploymentModeChooser, or any other recognized key except the automatic update settings is present in the profile, the device is managed. The in-app configuration window becomes read-only, and locally authored settings, including a single-machine test configuration, are ignored in favor of the profile. A managed device uses only the connection in the profile: users cannot add, import, or switch to other configurations in that window. If a group of users needs a different connection, scope a different profile to their devices or users in your management system, or leave those devices without a profile and set them up as described under Configure a single machine. Removing the profile returns the device to local control.

The app reads managed configuration at launch. After you change the profile on a device where the app is already running, have the user fully quit and reopen it.

Automatic updates

On macOS and Windows, Claude Desktop downloads and installs its own updates by default. If your agency distributes Claude Desktop updates itself, turn automatic updates off in both of the following places so that devices never update themselves.

On the Config page. Have a tenant administrator or organization owner turn on Block automatic updates and lock it, so that no level below theirs can turn updates back on. Claude Desktop applies this setting once a user has signed in and the app has loaded their configuration from Claude for Government. With that configuration loaded, the app follows this setting alone, whether it is on or off, and ignores the profile value.
In the profile. Add disableAutoUpdates with the value "true" to the macOS and Windows profiles above. The app applies the profile value only when it starts without a signed-in user, for example on a newly deployed device or when a user opens the app and has to sign in again because their session expired. Without the Config page setting, the profile value does not stop signed-in devices from updating.

Claude Desktop reads its update settings when it starts. If the app is already running on a device when you change the Config page setting or the profile, the change applies the next time the app starts. If you leave automatic updates on, Restart deadline for updates on the Config page sets how long a user can put off the restart that installs a downloaded update.

Confirm it worked

Run through these checks on a configured machine from either path.

Check the sign-in screen

Launch the app. The sign-in screen offers Sign in with your organization. On a managed device with disableDeploymentModeChooser set, it is the only option. If only the claude.ai sign-in appears, the configuration did not reach the app.

Check that the device is managed

On a device that received the profile through your management system, open the configuration window (the first three steps of the single-machine path). It should be read-only with a banner noting that your organization manages the configuration. If it is still editable, no recognized key reached the app, even if your management console reports the profile as delivered. The diagnostic report’s Configuration section (next step) shows exactly what the app read.

Generate a diagnostic report

From Help, choose Troubleshooting, then Generate Diagnostic Report. The report’s Configuration section lists which keys the app read, where each came from, and any values that failed to parse. Secret values are redacted, so the report is safe to attach to a help-desk ticket.

Sign in as a provisioned test user. If the app asks Apply settings from your organization?, expand the Gateway base URL it lists and confirm that the address is on your Claude for Government host, then click Allow. Chat works and the model picker lists the models you expect for that user’s seat tier.

Confirm per-user settings arrived

After sign-in, what the app offers matches that user’s product availability settings (with everything on, the sidebar shows Home and Code), and any organization-managed connectors appear in the app. One end-to-end test is to set a short message in the Claude Desktop banner setting on the tenant Config page during rollout; if the message appears across the top of the app after sign-in, per-user delivery is working. If sign-in succeeds but none of these settings arrive, re-check the configured address.

Troubleshooting

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
Only the claude.ai sign-in screen; no organization option	The configuration never reached the app: the profile was not delivered, a key name is misspelled, the value is in the wrong location or registry type, or the app was not relaunched after the change	Verify delivery in your management console, generate a diagnostic report and check its Configuration section, then fully quit and reopen the app
Sign-in times out, or the browser says the code expired	The app stops waiting after about five minutes	Cancel and start sign-in again; a fresh code is issued
The diagnostic report or `main.log` shows “Managed configuration is invalid; local settings are disabled until it is fixed”	The app detected a managed profile but could not read any of its values	Correct the profile and redeploy; the report’s Configuration section names each key that failed
Signed in, but the model picker is empty, or the app shows a Configuration can’t be used banner whose Details or Copy report for IT text says the provider returned no usable models	The user has no seat tier, or none of the tier’s models is available in Claude for Government, so the app received an empty model list. Nothing is wrong with the device’s configuration	Have an organization owner check the user’s seat tier on the Users page and the tier’s models on the Seat tiers page
An Apply settings from your organization? window appears after sign-in or at every launch, or the app quits when the user dismisses that window	The bootstrap address was entered in the app or set per user (for example under `HKEY_CURRENT_USER`), so the app asks each user to allow the gateway address that Claude for Government sends before it applies any of the organization’s settings, and the user has not yet clicked Allow. Choosing Quit, pressing Esc, or closing the window quits the app, and it asks again on the next launch.	Have the user expand Gateway base URL in that window, confirm that the address is on your Claude for Government host, and click Allow. The window does not take focus when it opens, so have the user switch to the Claude app to find it. If the address is not on your host, check the bootstrap address configured on that device. To stop the prompt across a fleet, deliver the bootstrap address through machine-wide device management, as described under Deploy to your fleet. Versions earlier than 1.32352.0 that ask for this approval also show a Configuration sync issue banner that says “bootstrap response is missing required field(s): inferenceGatewayBaseUrl” for the same cause. Update the app to the latest version, then answer the prompt.
During sign-in, the browser shows a Microsoft page titled “You cannot access this right now”, sometimes in one browser but not in another	Microsoft Entra ID shows this page when one of your agency’s Conditional Access policies blocks the sign-in, for example a policy that limits which browsers, devices, or locations can sign in. The refusal happens before the sign-in reaches Claude for Government, so nothing in the app or in this portal changes it.	Ask your identity team to find the failed sign-in in the identity provider’s sign-in logs. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, the sign-in event’s Conditional Access tab names the policy that blocked it and the condition that was not met. Adjust the policy, or have the user sign in from a browser or device the policy allows (Claude Desktop opens sign-in in the computer’s default browser).
The app shows Your session has expired or You’ve been signed out with a Sign in again button, or a device that was already set up opens to the sign-in screen	The user’s Claude for Government session ended, most often because they had not used Claude for longer than your tenant’s Session idle timeout. A device left idle, locked, or asleep does not keep a session alive. A session also ends at the Maximum session length, or when the user or an administrator signs it out.	Have the user sign in again. The app keeps its configuration and reconnects. If people are asked to sign in more often than you intend, ask a tenant administrator to review Session idle timeout and Maximum session length on the Config page. On Claude Desktop versions earlier than 1.34493.0 the same situation can appear as a Configuration sync issue banner instead, so update the app.

For anything else, the app writes its log to ~/Library/Logs/Claude-3p/main.log on macOS, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude-3p\logs\main.log on Windows, and ~/.config/Claude-3p/logs/main.log on Linux. The log records which configuration keys were read or dropped and why. The diagnostic report from the verification checklist produces a bundle, without conversation content, that you can send to your Anthropic representative.

Things to know

Configuration changes made in this portal do not need to be pushed to devices. The app re-checks Claude for Government for changes about every 30 minutes and at each launch, and prompts users to relaunch when something changed.
New and retired models appear in the model picker without any profile change or app update; model access is controlled through seat tiers.
The sign-in flow and what a user sees on the Sessions page after pairing a device are covered on that page.

Tenant administration

Organization administration

Config

Connectors

Security and compliance

Deploy Claude Desktop

Use Claude Desktop

Your account

Connect Claude Desktop to Claude for Government

Choose how to deploy

Before you begin

The managed setting

How the app uses the bootstrap address

Configure a single machine

Deploy to your fleet

macOS

Windows

Linux

Order of deployment

Automatic updates

Confirm it worked

Troubleshooting

Things to know

​Choose how to deploy

​Before you begin

​The managed setting

​How the app uses the bootstrap address

​Configure a single machine

​Deploy to your fleet

​macOS

​Windows

​Linux

​Order of deployment

​Automatic updates

​Confirm it worked

​Troubleshooting

​Things to know

Choose how to deploy

Before you begin

The managed setting

How the app uses the bootstrap address

Configure a single machine

Deploy to your fleet

macOS

Windows

Linux

Order of deployment

Automatic updates

Confirm it worked

Troubleshooting

Things to know