[BUG] Invalid env var CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS

Yup hit this one too on 1.0.59!

I had the same issue and resolved it by unsetting the CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS.

unset CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS

This also works!
"CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS": 32000

Looks like they added validation and limited it to 32000

Im having the same issue, how do I solve this? Im novice in this whole scene and still learning..
Im running windows vs code, and claude inside wsl terminal.

Where do i input CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS": 32000 ? or unset CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS specifically?

I have tried adding it into the ".bashrc" file which is located in \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\User\ but it didnt work.
I have also tried adding it into CLAUDE.md but didnt work.
Also tried adding it into "settings.json" which is located in \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\User\.claude but no luck there either..

The only way i could get it to somewhat work was by going into this directory:
"file:///home/User/.claude/local/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-code/" and opened the 9mb file "cli.js" in notepad++, scrolling all the way down to line 2902 which has exactly this code snippet:

{if(A.includes("3-5"))return 8192;if(A.includes("haiku"))return 8192;let B=process.env.CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS;if(B){let Q=parseInt(B,10);if(!isNaN(Q)&&Q>0&&Q<=32000)return Q;else throw new Error(Invalid env var CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS: ${B})}return 32000}

i replaced that entire line with this instead:

{if(A.includes("3-5"))return 8192;if(A.includes("haiku"))return 8192;let B=process.env.CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS;if(B){let Q=parseInt(B,10);if(!isNaN(Q)&&Q>0&&Q<=999999999)return Q;else throw new Error(Invalid env var CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS: ${B})}return 999999999}

And this made it finally work... now I can open WSL terminal in VS code and type "claude" to launch it again.
But after restarting VS code, its back to the same problem.. and i have to do this again.

Really any help would be appreciated :) and sorry for the noob stuff

I'm using amazon bedrock for accessing anthropic models like Sonnet v4. Why is there an env limit of 32000 for CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS? This will have a negative impact on performance.

In my case.
This happens when using MCP.

This is an issue with AWS Bedrock as well as direct Anthropic API.

yeh I got API Error: Claude's response exceeded the 32000 output token maximum. To configure this behavior, set the CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS environment variable.

but setting a new CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS in env gave me the same error as op.

Found 1 possible duplicate issue:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/4510

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Confirming that this issue is still present on the latest version:

Error: Invalid env var CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS: 64000
at AL0 (file:///usr/local/lib/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-code/cli.js:1875:28634)

And in the code section I see:

javascriptfunction AL0(A){
  if(A.includes("3-5"))return 8192;
  if(A.includes("haiku"))return 8192;
  let B=process.env.CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS;
  if(B){
    let Q=parseInt(B,10);
    if(!isNaN(Q)&&Q>0&&Q<=32000)return Q;
    else throw new Error(`Invalid env var CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS: ${B}`)
  }
  return 32000
}

The validation logic clearly shows:

It checks if the value is between 1 and 32,000 (Q>0&&Q<=32000)
if value of 64,000 exceeds this maximum
When the value is out of range, it throws the exact error

This issue was fixed in Claude Code v1.0.85.

What changed: The hard error "Invalid env var CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS: 64000" that crashed Claude Code has been replaced with graceful validation that doesn't crash.

Current behavior:

• Invalid values are handled without crashing
• Run /doctor to see any environment variable validation issues

Please claude update to resolve this issue.

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.