[BUG] Claude Code 2.1.27 freezes after first message - regression from 2.1.25

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22057
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22097
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22041

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Same issue here on MacOS

rm -rf ~/.claude/projects/the-project-where-the-freeze-happened mitigates the issue for me, and then it comes back again an hour later, also on 2.1.27

same issue on linux

same issue on macos

Confirming this issue on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Hetzner VPS, CX32 - 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM).

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (headless server, SSH access via Termius)
• Node.js: v22.21.1 (via NVM)
• Claude Code: 2.1.27 (broken) → 2.1.25 (works)
• Installation: npm global (via NVM)
• Auth: OAuth (claude.ai subscription)

Symptoms (identical to OP)

• Session starts normally, user sends first message
• TUI shows thinking animation ("Creating...", "Enchanting...", "Marinating...") then freezes completely
• Ctrl+C does not work, terminal becomes unresponsive
• When terminal is force-closed, the claude process becomes orphaned (PPID=1) and runs at 60-99% CPU indefinitely
• Multiple frozen attempts accumulated 8+ orphan processes, pushing CPU to 400% (all 4 cores maxed)

What did NOT help

• Disabling all MCP servers (6 servers disabled)
• Disabling all plugins
• Removing custom statusLine configuration
• Killing orphan processes and retrying (freeze immediately reoccurred)
• Clearing project session data

What fixed it

Downgrade to 2.1.25 resolved the issue instantly. First response came back within seconds.

Important note for NVM users

If Claude Code is installed via NVM, a standard npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.25 may appear to work but the auto-updater silently upgrades it back to 2.1.27 on the next launch. The reliable approach:

# 1. Disable auto-updater FIRST (add to ~/.bashrc before NVM loads)
export DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1

# 2. Clean uninstall + reinstall
npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
npm cache clean --force
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.25

# 3. Verify the ACTUAL binary, not just package.json
head -5 $(npm root -g)/@anthropic-ai/claude-code/cli.js | grep Version
# Should show: // Version: 2.1.25

Also worth noting: npm install -g @version sometimes updates package.json without replacing the actual minified cli.js bundle. The head verification above catches this.

Additional observation

• Sessions that were already running before the update to 2.1.27 continued to work fine (consistent with OP's report)
• The freeze happens on the very first API call — debug logs show startup completing normally but no API response is ever logged
• Orphan processes maintain active TCP connections to the API endpoint but never process the response

Same on MacOS 26.3

same on MacOS 26.2

Also having the issue on MacOS 26.2. I have one session running fine, but starting the second session in another terminal window, it get stuck on the first message.

+1 on Pi 5 (ARM64, 8GB). Downgrade to 2.1.25 fixed it.

FYI:

rm -fr ~/.claude/projects && mkdir ~/.claude/projects

Brings Claude back for awhile, and if it gets stuck again, then repeat the above.

happened to me after updating to 2.1.27 as well

v2.1.25 Fixed the issue

Reverted to 2.1.22 to fix on Linux.

same here on WSL2. Following fixed it.
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash -s 2.1.25

1. Rollback to 2.1.25

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash -s 2.1.25

2. Prevent update to 2.1.27

rm -f ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.27
chmod 555 ~/.local/share/claude/versions

3. Create smart update script

mkdir -p ~/scripts
cat > ~/scripts/claude-smart-update.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
SKIP_VERSION="2.1.27"
CURRENT=$(readlink ~/.local/bin/claude | grep -oP '\d+\.\d+\.\d+')
LATEST=$(ls ~/.local/share/claude/versions/ 2>/dev/null | grep -oP '\d+\.\d+\.\d+' | sort -V | tail -1)

if [ "$LATEST" != "$CURRENT" ] && [ "$LATEST" != "$SKIP_VERSION" ]; then
if [ "$(printf '%s\n' "$LATEST" "$CURRENT" | sort -V | tail -1)" = "$LATEST" ]; then
chmod 755 ~/.local/share/claude/versions
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash -s "$LATEST"
NEW_VERSION=$(readlink ~/.local/bin/claude | grep -oP '\d+\.\d+\.\d+')
# Auto-destroy after update to 2.1.28+
if [[ "$NEW_VERSION" > "2.1.27" ]]; then
crontab -l | grep -v "claude-smart-update" | crontab -
rm -f ~/scripts/claude-smart-update.sh
fi
fi
fi
EOF
chmod +x ~/scripts/claude-smart-update.sh

4. Setup cron (every 2 hours)

(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0 /2 $HOME/scripts/claude-smart-update.sh >> /tmp/claude-smart-update.log 2>&1") | crontab -

Same issue on Ubuntu 25.10 x86_64. Downgrading to 2.1.25 resolves it for now

Same issue on Mac Tahoe 26.2. Downgrading to 2.1.25 fixes it.

Same issue. Mac 15.3.1.
Downgrading to 2.1.25 did not fix it for me. Removing the project dir from ~/.claude/projects fixed it.

I've fixed this issue by moving it to 2.1.29 instead of downgrading to 2.1.25. I also cleaned a few stale project entries from ~/.claude/projects since I've renamed my project name

I've fixed this issue by moving it to 2.1.29 instead of downgrading to 2.1.25

Had the same problem, upgraded to v2.1.31 and it looks like things are working on my end. Good rec.

Issue still persists for me on v2.1.31. Deleting the project folder worked. I get the impression that something is "filling up," perhaps a cache get corrupted?

This has been happening to me fr a few weeks. Very frustrating and no serious fix yet.

Have started going back to Cursor...

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