[BUG] claude hangs silently on startup (all versions, clean config, empty env) — Debian 13, since 2026-10-07

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Since 2026-10-07 around 13:00 CEST, claude hangs indefinitely on startup on my VPS with
zero output, no error and no debug log. Both interactive mode and claude -p "ciao" hang.
claude --version works fine. It was working normally until that time; nothing was changed
by me on the system (no apt upgrades that day, server uptime 20 days).

What Should Happen?

Claude Code starts normally and answers the prompt.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

1. SSH into the server (Debian 13, kernel 6.12.63+deb13-amd64)
2. Run claude -p "ciao" (or just claude)
3. Process hangs forever, nothing printed

Isolation testing (all still hang)

• Version 2.1.292 (native binary) and 2.1.112 (old npm cli.js run with Node v22.22.0)
• Clean config: moved away ~/.claude.json and ~/.claude/
• Empty environment: env -i HOME=$HOME PATH=/usr/bin:/bin TERM=xterm-256color claude -p "ciao"
• claude --bare -p "ciao"
• ENABLE_CLAUDEAI_MCP_SERVERS=false, DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1,

CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1

• Fresh git repo as cwd (/tmp/test-claude after git init)
• stdin from /dev/null, stty sane
• No other claude / VS Code processes running; stale ~/.claude/ide/*.lock removed
• Native installer (install.sh) also hangs at "Setting up Claude Code..."

(it downloads 2.1.292 and runs it)

Ruled out

• Network: curl -I https://api.anthropic.com responds (IPv4 and IPv6)
• Memory: 3.8 GiB RAM, 2.6 GiB available, 2 GiB swap, no OOM
• Proxy / ANTHROPIC_* environment variables: none set

Diagnostics of the hung process (2.1.292, after 15 s)

• /proc/PID/wchan = 0 (main thread running / spinning)
• Open fds: only the tty, stdout/stderr file, eventpoll, eventfd, /dev/urandom,

/proc/PID/statm — no sockets, no config files opened

• ~/.claude/debug/latest is a dangling symlink (debug log never written)
• strace -f -p PID: 4 threads, worker threads blocked in

futex(..., FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 1, NULL)

Notable

Once (2026-10-07 ~19:13 CEST) it worked when run under strace:
strace -f -o /tmp/trace.txt claude -p "ciao" → answered normally and exited 0.
Several sessions worked around that time, then it hung again from ~19:24 onward
(when VS Code with the Claude Code extension was reopened via Remote SSH).
Later attempts under strace also hang.

Possibly related

After the auto-update to 2.1.292 via npm, npm skipped the package's postinstall script
("install scripts not yet covered by allowScripts"). Allowing it and reinstalling did not fix the hang.

Reboot

[COMPILARE: hangs also after reboot / works after reboot]

Environment

• Claude Code: 2.1.292 (also reproduced with 2.1.112)
• OS: Debian 13, kernel 6.12.63+deb13-amd64, x86_64 VPS
• Node: v22.22.0
• Install methods tried: npm global (user and root), native installer
• Terminal: SSH (plain terminal and VS Code Remote SSH terminal)
• Platform: Anthropic (claude.ai account login)

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.292

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_