[BUG] Claude Code process grows to ~14 GB RSS causing OOM kill and full system freeze

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?

Claude Code's Node.js process grows unbounded over a session until it consumes all
available system RAM and swap, triggering the Linux OOM killer. By the time the
kernel kills the process, the system is so memory-exhausted it hard-freezes and
requires a physical reboot.

This happens consistently within ~5 minutes of starting/resuming a session.

What Should Happen?

Memory usage should remain stable or grow slowly and be bounded. A CLI tool should
not consume all available system RAM.

Error Messages/Logs

Here's a dmesg capture after reboot: 


[  271.140136] oom-kill:constraint=CONSTRAINT_NONE,nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0,global_oom,task_memcg=/user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/app-org.gnome.Terminal.slice/vte-spawn-42acce52-0992-4dc3-96d9-fe067b14d36c.scope,task=claude,pid=4522,uid=1000
[  271.140213] Out of memory: Killed process 4522 (claude) total-vm:75693704kB, anon-rss:15022168kB, file-rss:0kB, shmem-rss:1376kB, UID:1000 pgtables:50368kB oom_score_adj:200

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start or resume a Claude Code session (claude or claude --resume)
2. Work normally (read files, run tools, have a multi-turn conversation)
3. After several minutes, system becomes unresponsive and freezes completely

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.58 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.58
• Node.js version: v18.17.1
• OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (Bookworm)
• Kernel: 6.1.0-37-amd64
• RAM: 16 GB
• Swap: 5.6 GB
• Enabled plugins: rust-analyzer-lsp@claude-plugins-official