[BUG] Claude Code spawns multiple duplicate processes causing server crash (OOM) on VS Code and Cursor - v2.1.25

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?

The Claude Code extension spawns multiple duplicate processes (5-7 instances) instead of a single process when connecting to a remote Ubuntu server via SSH. This consumes all available RAM and crashes the server.

Evidence from htop with 16GB RAM server:

• 7 processes of anthropic.claude-code-2.1.25-linux-x64 running simultaneously
• Each process consuming 40-45% of RAM
• Total: ~15GB/16GB = OOM crash within 1-2 minutes

Key observation: Other team members with identical server configuration (same Ubuntu version, same RAM, same project) do NOT experience this issue. They see only 1 process.

Tested on: VS Code and Cursor IDE - same issue on both.

Workaround: Using Claude Code CLI (claude command in terminal) works correctly with single process.

What Should Happen?

• Single Claude Code process should spawn (not 5-7 duplicates)
• Memory usage should be reasonable (~1-2GB)
• Server should remain stable during normal usage

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Claude Code extension v2.1.25 on VS Code or Cursor
2. Connect to remote Ubuntu 24.04 server via SSH (AWS EC2, 8GB or 16GB RAM)
3. Open a medium-sized project (Django project in my case)
4. Open Claude Code sidebar
5. Run htop in a separate SSH terminal to monitor processes
6. Observe: Multiple duplicate anthropic.claude-code processes spawn immediately
7. Server crashes within 1-2 minutes due to OOM (Out of Memory)

Configuration attempted (none helped):

• Created .claudeignore file excluding node_modules, .git, venv, __pycache__, etc.
• Set claudeCode.maxConcurrentTasks: 1 in settings.json
• Set claudeCode.enableIndexing: false in settings.json
• Complete reinstall of extension
• Upgraded server RAM from 8GB to 16GB
• Tried both VS Code and Cursor IDE

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

Unknown - started using recently

Claude Code Version

2.1.25

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

_No response_