Sidekick Blocked by Your Organization

What it looks like

You’ve installed Sidekick for InDesign from Adobe Exchange and downloaded the Claude extension, but Claude Desktop won’t run it. Depending on where you are, you see one of these:

• Nothing happens when you install it. Double-clicking the downloaded file, or choosing it under Settings → Extensions → Install Extension, does nothing at all.

• The Install button is greyed out, even though it says “All requirements met”.

• The Extensions panel shows Sidekick as disabled:

  Sidekick for InDesign · DISABLED Not allowed in your current organization.

In each case, when you type “sidekick health” in Claude, it doesn’t recognize the command — it has no idea what Sidekick is.

Why this happens

Your company uses a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, and your organization admin has turned on the desktop extension allowlist. When the allowlist is active, only extensions that have been explicitly approved by the admin can run. Everything else is blocked by default.

This means even though you installed Sidekick correctly, Claude Desktop won’t load it until your admin adds it to the allowlist.

How to fix it

You’ll need your Claude organization admin to approve Sidekick. Sidekick isn’t in Anthropic’s own directory of extensions, so your admin adds it as a custom extension, using the same file you downloaded. Send them the file (or the Claude install page, where they can download it) and ask them to:

1. Go to Organization settings in Claude and open Connectors
2. Scroll to the Desktop extension allowlist section at the bottom
3. Click Add desktop extensions and choose the Sidekick file

Sidekick then appears in the list of connectors as Desktop · Custom.

Once the extension is on the allowlist, restart Claude Desktop completely. Sidekick now shows up under Settings → Extensions, where you can install it if you hadn’t yet, and it should connect within a few seconds. Closing the window isn’t enough — on Windows it keeps running in the system tray (right-click its icon by the clock and choose Quit), and on macOS press Cmd+Q.

How to tell if this is your issue

Signs that the organization allowlist is blocking Sidekick:

1. You use Claude through your company, on a Team or Enterprise plan
2. Installing does nothing, the Install button is greyed out, or the Extensions panel shows DISABLED with “Not allowed in your current organization”
3. Claude doesn’t know what Sidekick is — typing “sidekick health” produces a confused response instead of a health check

If the extension is listed without the DISABLED badge but still not working, see Product support for help with other issues.

I don’t know who my Claude admin is

Check with your IT department — they manage your company’s Claude subscription. If you’re not sure whether your company has a Team or Enterprise plan, the DISABLED badge with “Not allowed in your current organization” confirms that it does. If you only see the other symptoms, ask IT whether the desktop extension allowlist is turned on.

More information

Anthropic’s documentation on this feature: Enabling and using the desktop extension allowlist