[BUG] Desktop SSH remote session: NO_INSTALL_RESULT with zero remote filesystem activity (Docker container target, distinct from #77753)

[btkramer79]

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?

Connecting Claude Code Desktop's Code tab to a remote host over a plain SSH connection (not WSL) fails with "Couldn't install the Claude CLI on the remote: the installer produced no result [NO_INSTALL_RESULT]". This shares the same error message and client binary hash (5db5e4a12f88487e47c2c48259b69a2d630bb3f7) as #77753, but the remote-side evidence points to a different root cause: in #77753 the server binary was written to the remote with broken permissions; in this case, no file or directory is ever created on the remote at all, and the SSH connection itself succeeds. The failure appears to happen entirely client-side, before any transfer to the remote begins.

What Should Happen?

Connection should succeed and the Code tab should install/detect the CLI on the remote, given that the remote environment is fully healthy (CLI already present, network reachable, filesystem writable).

Error Messages/Logs

main.log shows only successful connection test entries, no error for the install step itself:
LocalSessions.testSSHConnection: host=<alias>

ssh.log in the same logs directory is empty (0 bytes).

Remote-side diagnostics — confirms the remote's ~/.claude/remote/ directory is never created at all:
$ ls -laR ~/.claude/remote/srv/ 2>/dev/null
$ find ~/.claude -maxdepth 3 2>/dev/null
$ ls -la ~/.claude 2>/dev/null
(all three return nothing)

Confirms remote user CAN write to its own home directory normally:
$ mkdir -p ~/.claude/remote/test && echo "created OK" && rmdir ~/.claude/remote/test && rmdir ~/.claude/remote && rmdir ~/.claude
created OK

Confirms CLI already present and network reachable on remote:
$ which claude
/usr/local/bin/claude
$ claude --version
2.1.220 (Claude Code)
$ curl -sI https://downloads.claude.ai/claude-code-releases/latest
HTTP/2 200

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set up a remote target reachable via ssh <alias> using key-based auth (SSH config file, not password auth) — in my case a Docker container running its own sshd, not a bare VM or WSL distro
2. Confirm manually that the claude CLI is already installed and on PATH on the remote, and that the SSH user has full read/write access to its own home directory
3. In Claude Code Desktop's Code tab, add the SSH host using the same alias from step 1
4. Attempt to connect
5. Observe: connection test succeeds (per main.log), but install step fails with NO_INSTALL_RESULT and no file is ever written to the remote

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.220 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

Claude Desktop app version: 1.24012.9 (Windows)
Remote OS: Debian-based Docker container (node:20-slim base image)
Related issue: #77753 — same error message and same client binary hash, but different remote-side symptoms (see "What's Wrong?" above for how they differ)