Memory leak: ArrayBuffers grow to 6.3GB in ~5 minutes (cc 2.1.72)

Summary

Claude Code process leaks memory rapidly via ArrayBuffers. Went from ~2GB to 6.5GB within minutes of normal usage.

Diagnostics

• cc version: 2.1.72
• Node: v24.3.0
• Platform: macOS (Darwin 24.0.0)
• Uptime at snapshot: 337 seconds (~5.6 min)

Memory breakdown

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| heapUsed | 7.16 GB |
| heapTotal (V8) | 65 MB |
| external | 7.11 GB |
| arrayBuffers | 6.35 GB |
| rss | 490 MB |
| Growth rate | ~5 GB/hour (~1.45 MB/s) |

Key observation

The V8 JS heap is healthy at 65MB. Nearly all memory is in external / arrayBuffers (6.35GB), indicating Buffer or ArrayBuffer instances are being allocated and never freed. This is not a JS object graph leak — it's a native memory / buffer retention issue.

Full diagnostics JSON

{
  "timestamp": "2026-03-16T14:38:04.452Z",
  "sessionId": "481cf019-5bae-41d2-8d22-1646d09c7453",
  "trigger": "manual",
  "dumpNumber": 0,
  "uptimeSeconds": 337.358501417,
  "memoryUsage": {
    "heapUsed": 7165363765,
    "heapTotal": 65052672,
    "external": 7113590637,
    "arrayBuffers": 6354633756,
    "rss": 490471424
  },
  "memoryGrowthRate": {
    "bytesPerSecond": 1453858.2011121192,
    "mbPerHour": 4991.426013949995
  },
  "v8HeapStats": {
    "heapSizeLimit": 7307264000,
    "mallocedMemory": 7166150685,
    "peakMallocedMemory": 730726400,
    "detachedContexts": 0,
    "nativeContexts": 1
  },
  "resourceUsage": {
    "maxRSS": 748263833600,
    "userCPUTime": 79160639,
    "systemCPUTime": 9286570
  },
  "activeHandles": 0,
  "activeRequests": 0,
  "analysis": {
    "potentialLeaks": [
      "High memory growth rate: 4991.4 MB/hour"
    ],
    "recommendation": "WARNING: 1 potential leak indicator(s) found. See potentialLeaks array."
  },
  "platform": "darwin",
  "nodeVersion": "v24.3.0",
  "ccVersion": "2.1.72"
}

Reproduction

Normal conversational usage (file reads, code edits, tool calls). No unusually large files or outputs.

Expected behavior

Memory should remain stable during a typical session, not grow at ~5GB/hour.