[BUG] Bash tool is completely unresponsive - no commands are executing or returning output

Status Closed — not planned

Maintainer reply ✓ Yes — rboyce-ant

Activity 10 comments · opened Jul 6, 2025 · closed Jan 15, 2026

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (rboyce-ant, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Environment

Platform (select one):
[X] Anthropic API
[ ] AWS Bedrock
[ ] Google Vertex AI
[ ] Other:
Claude CLI version: 1.0.43
Operating System: macos 15.5 (24F74)
Terminal: Terminal App

Bug Description

The Bash tool stopped working completely during a session. Multiple commands were attempted but none returned any output or error messages. This includes simple commands like:
  - pwd
  - ls
  - echo "test"
  - npm run typecheck

  Even with explicit timeout values, no response was received. The tool appears to be completely unresponsive.

> Show me your todo

⏺ Here's my current todo list:

  1. Update CI/CD to support Testcontainers (pending, low priority) - This is the only remaining task from the original test improvement work.

  All other tasks have been completed:
  - ✅ Created @makedir/testing package structure
  - ✅ Set up Testcontainers infrastructure
  - ✅ Created test database setup utilities
  - ✅ Implemented shared test fixtures and factories
  - ✅ Created integration tests for AccountRepo and DirectoryRepo
  - ✅ Configured packages to use Vite
  - ✅ Added transaction testing scenarios
  - ✅ Refactored factories to use drizzle-seed
  - ✅ Created beforeAllSetupDb() helper

  We just finished updating the tests to use drizzle-seed's reset() function and I was trying to remove the DatabaseCleaner files that are no longer needed.

I also asked it to make a web search - it seems it didn't work too.

Steps to Reproduce

TBH I don't know. I had a long session, compacted our dialog mb 5 times already - it was working completely fine. I didn't reach context limit (min amount was something like ~20%, but I often compacted after a subtask is complete)

Expected Behavior

Well... It should work? :D

Actual Behavior

It doesn't. :)

Additional Context

/doctor

Claude CLI Diagnostic
 Currently running: npm-local (1.0.43)
 Path: /Users/bohdan/Library/Application Support/fnm/node-versions/v22.2.0/installation/bin/node
 Invoked: /Users/bohdan/.claude/local/node_modules/.bin/claude
 Auto-updates: Yes
 Config install method: local
 Config auto-updates: true

/status

 Claude Code Status v1.0.43
  L Session ID: <saved on disk - can send to email>

 Working Directory 
  L /***/packages/testing

 Account • /login
  L Login Method: Claude Max Account
  L Organization: ***@gmail.com's Organization
  L Email: ***@gmail.com

 Memory • /memory
  L project: ~/***/CLAUDE.md

 Model • /model
  L Default Opus 4 for up to 50% of usage limits, then use Sonnet 4 (currently Opus)

View original on GitHub ↗

10 Comments

rboyce-ant contributor · 1 year ago

@bohdan-shulha are you able to reproduce this issue consistently? I've been investigating and haven't seen other instances of the Bash tool locking up like this. Would you be able to share your bashrc/zshrc if this is still happening?

bohdan-shulha · 1 year ago

No, sorry. I happened just a single time for me in a ~month. I'll let you know if I am ever able to repro it again.

feidaZhang · 1 year ago

It still happens. Too bad!!!
claude: 1.0.57 (Claude Code)
node: v20.19.2, v18.20.8

jmanchuck · 1 year ago

I had similar issue and for me it was because claude code was using zsh (using the SHELL environment variable)

When I ran claude with

``SHELL=/bin/bash claude``

the commands work again.

Is Claude Code hard coded to use bash shell commands? Maybe it should always use /bin/bash instead of what's in SHELL

richardbaihe · 12 months ago

I had similar issue and for me it was because claude code was using zsh (using the SHELL environment variable) When I ran claude with SHELL=/bin/bash claude the commands work again. Is Claude Code hard coded to use bash shell commands? Maybe it should always use /bin/bash instead of what's in SHELL

No. SHELL=/bin/bash claude doesn't fix this problem. Here is a screenshot showing the exact issue on my linux remote machine.

github-actions[bot] · 10 months ago

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. If the issue is still occurring, please comment to let us know. Otherwise, this issue will be automatically closed in 30 days for housekeeping purposes.

kenneth-liao · 10 months ago

This suddenly started happening to me today. It was working fine until it wasn't.

can you see what uv tools are available? ∴ Thinking… The user is asking me to see what uv tools are available. This seems like a straightforward request to check what tools are installed or available via uv. Let me check what uv tools are available by running the appropriate command. I should use uv tool list to see what tools are currently installed. ⏺ I'll check what uv tools are available for you. ⏺ Bash(uv tool list) ⎿ (No content) ∴ Thinking… The command returned no output, which means there are currently no uv tools installed. Let me also check if I can get help about uv tool commands to see what options are available. ⏺ No uv tools are currently installed. Let me check what commands are available for managing uv tools: ⏺ Bash(uv tool --help) ⎿ (No content) ∴ Thinking… That's odd, no output again. Let me try just checking the uv version and general help to see if it's installed properly. ⏺ Bash(uv --version) ⎿ (No content) ∴ Thinking… It seems like uv might not be installed or there's an issue. Let me check if it's in the PATH. ⏺ Bash(which uv) ⎿ (No content)

I thought it might have been the sandbox, but even disabling it didn't make this go away.

github-actions[bot] · 9 months ago

This issue has been automatically closed due to 60 days of inactivity. If you're still experiencing this issue, please open a new issue with updated information.

marcindulak · 9 months ago

This issue was closed incorrectly despite recent human comments. This behavior of the bot is reported at https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/16497. Please upvote that issue, so maybe it gets noticed.

github-actions[bot] · 8 months ago

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.