Claude Desktop: Local Claude Code sessions crash immediately with exit code 1 (429 on OAuth endpoint)

Environment

• Claude Desktop: v1.1.7714 (macOS, darwin, arm64)
• Bundled Claude Code: v2.1.78
• System Claude Code CLI: v2.1.80 (works fine)
• macOS: Darwin 25.1.0

Description

Since the latest update, all local Claude Code sessions in the Claude Desktop app fail immediately. Sending any prompt returns nothing — the Claude Code process exits with code 1 before producing any response.

The CLI (claude installed via Homebrew) works fine on the same machine and same directories. Only the desktop app's embedded Claude Code feature is broken.

Symptoms

Every session attempt produces this in ~/Library/Logs/Claude/main.log:

[info] Starting local session <session-id> in <working-directory>
[info] [LocalPluginsReader] Found 7 local plugins
[info] [CCD] Passing 8 plugin(s) to SDK (skills: 1, local: 7)
[info] Using Claude Code binary at: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.78/claude.app/Contents/MacOS/claude
[error] Session <session-id> query error: Claude Code process exited with code 1
[info] [CCD CycleHealth] unhealthy cycle for <session-id> (0s, hadFirstResponse=false, reason=no_response)

Occasionally accompanied by:

[error] Sentry caught: {
  type: 'Error',
  value: 'write EPIPE',
  stack: 'Error: write EPIPE\n    at WriteWrap.onWriteComplete [as oncomplete] (node:internal/stream_base_commons:87:19)'
}

Root Cause

The debug log (~/.claude/debug/latest) reveals the bundled Claude Code binary is getting HTTP 429 rate-limited on the OAuth client data endpoint at startup:

AxiosError: [url=https://api.anthropic.com/api/oauth/claude_cli/client_data,status=429,body=Rate limited. Please try again later.]
    at YM (/$bunfs/root/claude:92:1144)
    at <anonymous> (/$bunfs/root/claude:93:10067)
    ...

This error repeats dozens of times in rapid succession. The binary cannot complete initialization without this endpoint, so it exits with code 1.

Each restart of the desktop app fires more requests to this endpoint, deepening the rate limit — creating a vicious cycle where the user keeps retrying and the rate limit keeps getting worse.

Additional context

• The bundled binary works fine standalone (claude --version returns successfully)
• CCD reports Status: ready (version: 2.1.78) before attempting to start sessions
• Cloud/VM-based sessions (agent mode) appear unaffected — only local Claude Code sessions crash
• The claude.ai-web.log also shows unrelated anthropic-beta header errors: Unexpected value(s) 'environments-package-support-2025-12-09', 'environments-2026-03-01' for the 'anthropic-beta' header
• 7 marketplace plugins enabled (claude-code-setup, code-review, commit-commands, code-simplifier, coderabbit, frontend-design, Notion)
• Re-downloading the app and clearing the bundled binary cache did not fix the issue

Expected behavior

The bundled Claude Code binary should:

1. Handle 429 responses gracefully with exponential backoff instead of crashing
2. Not hit the rate limit under normal usage (single startup request)
3. Potentially cache the OAuth client data to avoid hitting the endpoint on every session start

Steps to reproduce

1. Use Claude Desktop v1.1.7714 with bundled Claude Code v2.1.78
2. Open a local Claude Code session (not cloud/agent mode)
3. Send any prompt
4. Observe no response — session crashes immediately

Workaround

• Wait 15-30 minutes for the rate limit to expire before retrying
• Avoid rapidly restarting the app, as each attempt worsens the rate limit
• Use the standalone Claude Code CLI which is unaffected