claude.exe accumulates 13+ GB virtual memory, triggers Windows Resource Exhaustion

Description

On Windows 11 (64 GB RAM), multiple claude.exe processes accumulate massive amounts of virtual memory over time, never releasing it. This triggers repeated Resource-Exhaustion-Detector warnings (Event ID 2004) and eventually destabilizes the system (DWM crash, Windows Terminal crash, UDP port exhaustion).

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
• RAM: 64 GB DDR5 3600 MT/s
• Claude Code: CLI (latest)
• Shell: Git Bash + Windows Terminal
• Usage: 3-4 terminal tabs running Claude Code sessions concurrently

Symptoms

1. Progressive memory leak: a single claude.exe process grew from ~5 GB to 13.3 GB of committed virtual memory over ~4 hours without releasing
2. Multiple zombie processes: crashed/exited Claude Code sessions leave claude.exe processes running that continue consuming memory
3. System-wide impact:

• Non-Paged Pool reached 31.5 GB (normal: 200-500 MB)
• Windows Resource-Exhaustion-Detector fired every ~30 minutes
• Windows Terminal crashed (0xc000027b in Windows.UI.Xaml.dll)
• Desktop Window Manager (DWM) restarted
• UDP ephemeral ports exhausted (Tcpip Event 4266)

Event Log Evidence

Repeated Event ID 2004 from Microsoft-Windows-Resource-Exhaustion-Detector:

9:11 AM  — claude.exe (PID A) consumed 13,157,031,936 bytes
9:35 AM  — claude.exe (PID A) consumed 13,868,277,760 bytes
12:04 PM — claude.exe (PID A) consumed 14,104,268,800 bytes
1:36 PM  — claude.exe (PID A) consumed 14,253,273,088 bytes

A second claude.exe instance (PID B) simultaneously held 6+ GB, and a third (PID C) held 4.2+ GB.

Resource Monitor Data

• In Use: 51.6 GB / 64 GB (78%)
• Non-Paged Pool: 31.5 GB
• Committed: 86.2 / 95.9 GB
• Task Manager shows ~8-10 GB across visible processes — the rest is kernel/NPP

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open 3-4 terminal tabs running claude CLI sessions
2. Use sessions actively (code exploration, file edits, subagent spawning, MCP tools)
3. Let one or more sessions crash or be interrupted
4. Observe that claude.exe processes remain running and memory grows over hours

Expected Behavior

• Claude Code sessions that crash or are interrupted should clean up child processes
• Memory usage should remain bounded and stable over multi-hour sessions
• Exiting a session should fully release all allocated memory

Workaround

Manually kill orphaned claude.exe processes via Task Manager. Note: the Non-Paged Pool leak requires a full system reboot to clear.