[BUG] Claude Code v1.0.53 allocating >120GB VM and 44GB physical memory and getting OOM killed

Resolved 💬 7 comments Opened Jul 16, 2025 by mark-99 Closed Jul 27, 2025

Claude Code v1.0.53 is frequently and apparently randomly using excessive amounts of memory and getting OOM killed.

analyze this dmesg
    ```[6746807.992310] [1661706]  1000 1661706  2945110    58453  9555968        0             0 node
    [6746807.992312] [1708298]     0 1708298   696366     5064   471040        0          -500 dockerd
    [6746807.992315] [1717450]  1000 1717450  8214417    30402  3702784        0             0 node
    [6746807.992316] [1721397]  1000 1721397 33547921 11490051 99647488        0             0 claude
    [6746807.992318] [1732461]     0 1732461     3860     1013    73728        0             0 sshd
    [6746807.992320] [1732462]   109 1732462     3860      681    77824        0             0 sshd
    [6746807.992322] [1734802]     0 1734802     3860     1108    73728        0             0 sshd
    [6746807.992324] [1734813]  1000 1734813      698      248    49152        0             0 sleep
    [6746807.992326] [1734836]   109 1734836     3860      695    73728        0             0 sshd
    [6746807.992328] [1735021]  1000 1735021      723      221    49152        0             0 sh
    [6746807.992330] [1735022]  1000 1735022     1091      495    53248        0             0 cpuUsage.sh
    [6746807.992332] [1735025]  1000 1735025     1548      181    49152        0             0 sleep
    [6746807.992334] [1735030]  1000 1735030      698      244    40960        0             0 sleep
    [6746807.992336] oom-kill:constraint=CONSTRAINT_NONE,nodemask=(null),cpuset=tailscaled.service,mems_allowed=0,global_oom,task_memcg=/user.slice/user-1000.slice/session-c88.scope,task=claude,pid=1721397,uid=1000
    [6746807.992366] Out of memory: Killed process 1721397 (claude) total-vm:134191684kB, anon-rss:45957644kB, file-rss:2560kB, shmem-rss:0kB, UID:1000 pgtables:97312kB oom_score_adj:0

● This is an Out of Memory (OOM) kill event. The system killed the claude process (PID 1721397) because it was consuming excessive memory.

Key details:

  • Process killed: claude (PID 1721397, UID 1000)
  • Memory usage: 134,191,684 kB (128 GB) virtual memory, 45,957,644 kB (44 GB) resident memory
  • Reason: System ran out of memory (global OOM)
  • Time: 6746807.992366 seconds since boot

The process list shows claude was by far the largest memory consumer. Other processes like node and dockerd were using much less memory. The OOM killer selected claude as the best candidate to free up memory and keep
the system operational.

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