[BUG] Severe memory leak on startup — RSS grows to 7GB in ~4 minutes with no user interaction (WSL2)

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 exhibits a severe memory leak immediately after launch, with no user interaction whatsoever. RSS memory grows from ~500MB to over 7GB within approximately 4 minutes, eventually triggering an OOM condition and crashing WSL2.

What Should Happen?

Memory usage should remain stable after launch, ideally below 500MB,
with no active session or prompts running. It should not grow
unboundedly when the user has not entered any input.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open a WSL2 terminal
2. Run claude to start Claude Code
3. Do nothing — no prompts, no commands, no interaction
4. Monitor memory with:

watch -n 2 'ps aux | grep claude | grep -v grep'

Observed memory growth:

• t=0:00 — RES: ~530 MB
• t=1:04 — RES: 1.7 GB
• t=2:04 — RES: 4.4 GB
• t=4:00 — RES: 7+ GB → WSL2 crashes with error: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.78

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other Linux

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

_No response_