[BUG] Claude Desktop causes kernel panics on macOS via vnode exhaustion and excessive disk writes

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

• macOS 26.3.1 (Build 25D2128), M4 Pro, Mac16,8, 24GB RAM
• Claude Desktop 1.1.7053

Summary

Claude Desktop caused 5+ kernel panics in a single day by exhausting the
system's vnode limit and exceeding macOS disk write limits.

Evidence

macOS generated a diagnostic report
(Claude_2026-03-17-162906_Joes-MacBook-Pro.diag) flagging Claude Desktop for:

• 2,325 MB of file-backed memory dirtied over 26,803 seconds (86.76 KB/s

average, exceeding the 24.86 KB/s system limit)

• Vnodes available at time of report: 0.82% (2,147 / 263,168) — effectively

exhausted

When vnodes hit zero, launchd (PID 1) receives SIGBUS and exits, triggering a
kernel panic. All kernel panics that day showed the same string:

panic(cpu N): initproc exited -- exit reason namespace 2 subcode 0xa

The diagnostic window (9:02 AM – 4:29 PM) exactly covers the period when
panics were occurring. Claude Desktop was the process macOS identified as
responsible for the resource exhaustion.

Workaround

Doubling the vnode limit via sudo sysctl -w kern.maxvnodes=524288 (persisted
in /etc/sysctl.conf) stopped the kernel panics.

Request

Please investigate the disk write pattern and file handle usage in Claude
Desktop under sustained prompt load. The write rate and vnode consumption
appear to be a resource leak.

What Should Happen?

Claude should work without crashing my fucking system!

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Run Claude Desktop?

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

latest

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_