API Connection Timeout Despite Healthy System Resources (125GB RAM Available)

API Connection Timeout Despite Healthy System Resources

Summary

Claude Code consistently fails with "Connection error" and "Request timed out" messages despite:

• 125GB available system memory
• Normal network connectivity (verified via curl)
• Low process counts (1 MCP process, 2 zombie processes)
• Anthropic API server responding to network tests

Environment

Claude Code Version: 2.1.19
Platform: WSL2 (Ubuntu on Windows)
Kernel: 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Node.js: v22.17.0
npm: 10.9.2

System Resources (At Time of Error)

$ free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           125Gi       1.4Gi       124Gi       3.5Mi       560Mi       124Gi
Swap:           32Gi          0B        32Gi

MCP Processes: 1 (normal)
Zombie Processes: 2 (normal)
Total Process Count: Well within normal limits

Error Message

● Bash(ls -la /mnt/c/82Mobile/82mobile-next/components/shop/ ...)
  ⎿  PreToolUse:Bash hook succeeded: Success
  ⎿  [output truncated]
  ⎿  PostToolUse:Bash hook succeeded: Success
  ⎿  API Error: Connection error.

✻ Worked for 4m 50s

❯ continue
  ⎿  UserPromptSubmit hook succeeded: Success
  ⎿  Request timed out. Check your internet connection and proxy settings
     Retrying in 8 seconds… (attempt 6/10)

Network Diagnostics

$ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 https://api.anthropic.com
404

$ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 https://www.google.com
200

Network Status: ✅ Normal (404 from Anthropic API is expected without auth)

Reproduction Steps

1. Work on a multi-step task in Claude Code for 4-5 minutes
2. Execute Bash tool with hooks enabled (PreToolUse/PostToolUse)
3. Observe "API Error: Connection error" followed by timeout
4. Error persists through retries (attempt 6/10 shown)

Expected Behavior

API requests should succeed when:

• System has 124GB available memory
• Network connectivity is verified
• Process counts are normal
• No resource constraints present

Actual Behavior

API connection fails with timeout error, suggesting the issue is:

• Not related to system memory (125GB available)
• Not related to general network connectivity (curl tests pass)
• Possibly related to Claude API infrastructure or long-running sessions

Additional Context

• User increased system memory from previous config, no improvement
• Same error occurs across different working directories
• Error pattern suggests possible session-level connection degradation
• Related to issue #18762 (Plugin-MCP Configuration Mismatch) but distinct

Impact

High - Blocks productivity during multi-step tasks, forces session restarts

Workaround

Complete Claude Code restart (exit and relaunch) temporarily resolves the issue until it recurs.