Desktop app leaves orphaned child processes consuming 100% CPU
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 29, 2026 by antonevteev1980-ux Closed Apr 2, 2026
Description
The Claude desktop app (v1.1.8629) does not properly terminate child claude processes when a session is closed. This results in orphaned processes running indefinitely at 100% CPU.
Reproduction
- Use Claude desktop app to start a Claude Code session (local agent mode)
- Close/leave the session
- The child
claudeprocess (Claude Code binary) continues running in the background at 100% CPU
Observed behavior
- Orphaned process:
claude(v2.1.78) with--resumeflag, launched via desktop app - CPU usage: 100% constant
- The process accumulated 1746 minutes (~29 hours) of CPU time over 3 days before being manually killed
kill <pid>(SIGTERM) was ignored — requiredkill -9(SIGKILL) to terminate- Mac CPU temperature reached 90°C, dropped to 52°C after killing the process
Expected behavior
Child processes should be terminated when the parent session is closed. At minimum, the process should respond to SIGTERM gracefully.
Environment
- macOS Darwin 25.3.0 (Apple Silicon)
- Claude desktop app v1.1.8629
- Claude Code v2.1.78
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