# Auto-continue Claude Desktop sessions

Source: https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/claude-desktop/
Published: 2026-10-02 Updated: 2026-10-02

Your Code session in Claude Desktop stops at the session-limit card, halfway through a migration.
You'd like it to carry on without you.

Claude Desktop already does the basic version.
The session-limit card in the Code tab has an [**Auto-continue when limits reset**](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/errors#youve-hit-your-session-limit) checkbox.
Tick it and Desktop retries the interrupted turn after the reset.
It's separate from the CLI's own setting.
The weekly-limit card doesn't offer it, and Anthropic's tip is to [leave the session open](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/whats-new/2026-w33).

Just want that turn retried, with Desktop left open?
Tick the box.
You don't need anything else.

## What the app adds

[Agent Auto-Continue](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/) is a free macOS menu-bar app that schedules messages into Desktop's Code sessions.

- **Your message.** "Run the tests and fix what fails", not the same turn again.
- **Your time.** 03:00, tomorrow at 09:00, or **When free**.
- **Several turns.** Up to a limit or until you stop it, with an optional stop phrase like `TASK COMPLETE`.
- **The weekly limit.** Pick a time after the reset.
- **Every agent in one queue.** Claude Code, Codex, the ChatGPT app and [more](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/agents/).
- **Optional [keep-awake](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/keep-mac-awake/).** Off by default; it keeps the display on for Desktop work.

One catch with **When free**.
The app reads Desktop's limits from its plan-usage samples, which carry no reset time.
Without one, the limit doesn't hold the send back, so it goes straight away.
If that turn hits the limit, it doesn't count, and the next waits for the reset in Claude's limit message, or 15 minutes without one.
Three limited turns in a row pause the chain.

![The Agent Auto-Continue composer with the Claude Desktop session Draft the 2.4 release notes picked, When free selected and the note Claude Desktop is limited, reset time unknown, with up to 3 turns or the stop phrase TASK COMPLETE. The line under Continue reads When Claude Desktop is free, up to 3 turns, or at TASK COMPLETE. A blue box marks When free and the limit note.](https://ryansam.com/_astro/when-free-light.BVi2poIk.png)

*Claude Desktop gives no reset time, so When free tries straight away.*

## How it sends

It opens the session with Desktop's own `claude://` link, sets the message through macOS Accessibility and presses **Send**.
No keyboard events, and it never starts `claude` itself.

- **It waits while Claude's working**, going by Desktop's own status and any Stop button by the message box.
- **It won't touch a draft** you've left in the box, or send while Claude's waiting on you.
- **Delivery counts** only when the typed prompt shows up in the session's transcript.
  If it can't tell, it's marked [unconfirmed](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/faq/), never resent.
- **An app state it doesn't recognise** means it refuses before typing anything.

Desktop's Code sessions don't show under Claude Code, which won't send to them ([the CLI has its own page](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/claude-code/)).

## Side by side

| | Built-in checkbox | Agent Auto-Continue |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sends | The interrupted turn, again | Any message |
| When | At the session-limit reset | A time, or When free |
| Several turns | No | Yes, optional stop phrase |
| Weekly limit | No | At a time you pick |
| Desktop open | Yes, session too | Yes; it opens the session |
| Mac locked | Not documented | Waits for the unlock |
| Other agents | No | Yes, like [Codex in the ChatGPT app](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/chatgpt-codex/) |

## Set it up

1. [Install the app](https://ryansam.com/agent-auto-continue/install/) and keep Claude Desktop running.
2. Turn Agent Auto-Continue on in [System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh43185/mac).
   The app never pops that prompt itself; if it's missing, the dashboard links there.
3. In the session, pick a [permission mode](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop#choose-a-permission-mode) you'd leave unattended.
   For several turns, ask Claude to end its final message with `TASK COMPLETE` when done.
4. In the menu-bar popover, pick the session, then when and how far.
5. Press **Continue** and leave the Mac unlocked.

## The honest limits

- **The Mac must be unlocked when it's due.** Locked, it waits, checking every minute and at unlock.
  A one-off gives up after six hours; a continuation waits until you stop it.
- **When free can be early.** If you know the reset, pick that time.
- **Chats aren't covered.** They live in the cloud, with no local record to find one or prove a message arrived.
- **An app update can pause it.** It checks Desktop read-only at launch, when you schedule, and every five minutes while something waits.
  If an update changed what it relies on, the dashboard flags it; a due message fails unsent and a continuation pauses.