[BUG] Claude Code crashes on Windows when debug directory is missing (ENOENT in appendFileSync)
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Feb 22, 2026 by jaried Closed Mar 22, 2026
What's Wrong?
Claude Code exits unexpectedly when it encounters an ENOENT error while trying to write to the debug directory. The ~/.claude/debug/ directory is missing, causing appendFileSync to throw and crash the entire process instead of handling the error gracefully and continuing.
Error message:
ERROR ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '\?\C:\Users\Tony\.claude\debug\4afdf964-b07d-4695-b1a2-710eae7c6b9a.txt'
- at appendFileSync (unknown)
- appendFileSync (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:12:1854)
- writeFn (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:12:4949)
- E (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:12:4332)
- write (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:12:4455)
- q (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:14:36)
- QlA (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:11250:42544)
- GD (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:241:20801)
- tW (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:241:39202)
- Zl (B:/~BUN/root/claude.exe:241:49826)
What Should Happen?
When the debug directory is missing or a debug file cannot be written, Claude Code should log a warning and continue normal operation without crashing. Debug logging is a non-critical operation and should never terminate the process.
Steps to Reproduce
- Ensure
~/.claude/debug/directory does not exist on Windows - Run Claude Code and trigger any operation that writes debug logs
- Observe Claude Code exits completely instead of continuing
Environment
- Claude Code version: 2.1.50
- OS: Windows 10 Pro (Build 19045)
- Terminal: Windows Terminal 1.23.20211.0
- Platform: Claude Max (Max 5)
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