Claude Desktop app crashes on launch: V8 OOM / JavaScript heap out of memory

Environment

• App version: Claude Desktop 1.2581.0
• OS: macOS 26.3.1 (Build 25D771280a), Darwin 25.3.0
• Hardware: Apple M5, 24 GB RAM (80% free at time of crash)
• Architecture: arm64

Description

Claude Desktop crashes every time it's opened, within ~12 seconds of launch. The app window briefly appears and renders (dom-ready fires), then the process dies.

Root Cause

Running the app from terminal reveals a V8 heap out of memory error. The JavaScript heap grows to 3.8 GB in ~11 seconds and then V8 fails to allocate:

[3438:0x11c006d0000]    11512 ms: Mark-Compact (reduce) 3813.1 (3818.2) -> 3813.0 (3818.0) MB, pooled: 0.0 MB, 19.36 / 0.00 ms (average mu = 0.484, current mu = 0.019) last resort; GC in old space requested
[3438:0x11c006d0000]    11529 ms: Mark-Compact (reduce) 3813.0 (3818.0) -> 3813.0 (3817.0) MB, pooled: 0.0 MB, 17.36 / 0.00 ms (average mu = 0.324, current mu = 0.001) last resort; GC in old space requested

[3438:0414/225250.697977:ERROR:electron/shell/common/node_bindings.cc:185] OOM error in V8: CALL_AND_RETRY_LAST Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory

Additional errors on startup

MaxListenersExceededWarning: Possible EventEmitter memory leak detected. 11 change listeners added to [jin]. MaxListeners is 10.

Error occurred in handler for '$eipc_message$_..._claude.buddy_$_BuddyBleTransport_$_reportState': Error: No handler registered for '..._BuddyBleTransport_$_reportState'

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Claude Desktop app (v1.2581.0)
2. App window appears briefly
3. App closes/crashes within ~12 seconds

Running from terminal confirms the OOM:

/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude 2>&1

What was tried

• Cleared all caches (Cache/, Code Cache/, GPUCache/, DawnGraphiteCache/, DawnWebGPUCache/, Crashpad/) — did not fix
• Cleared vm_bundles/ (was 12 GB of accumulated old bundles) — did not fix
• Verified system memory is not the issue (80% free, 24 GB total)
• App code signature is valid

MCP config

The user has n8n-mcp and supabase MCP servers configured. These launch on app startup but the OOM happens regardless.