[BUG] Claude Code memory leak on Linux - conversation context never freed, causes system crash

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?

Environment:

• OS: Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition)
• Kernel: 6.18.12-200.fc43.x86_64
• RAM: 16GB
• Claude Code version: 2.1.52 (Claude Code), Sonnet 4.6
• Platform: Linux x86_64

Description:

Claude Code accumulates memory continuously during a conversation and never releases it. The process eventually consumed 14GB+ of RAM, making the system unresponsive and forcing a hard reboot.

This does not occur on Windows.

What Should Happen?

Behaves like windows, or learn how codex does

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Start Claude Code on Fedora Linux
Begin a conversation involving tool calls (especially bash commands with large output)
Run a tool that produces large output - e.g. journalctl
Watch memory in system monitor - it climbs and never drops
Continuing the conversation accelerates the growth
System becomes unresponsive

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.52 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

<img width="1034" height="80" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/67d0834f-f9bd-4639-9e81-df0ad50e58ad" />