[BUG] Severe memory leak — claude/node process reaches 108GB on M5 Max macOS

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Code 2.1.132 has a severe memory leak. After running a normal coding session alongside Chrome (~10 tabs), the system displayed "Your system has run out of application memory."

Force Quit dialog reported Terminal at 108.28 GB and swap usage at 41.62 GB on a machine with 36 GB physical RAM. The claude.exe and node processes were both visible in Activity Monitor consuming massive amounts of memory.

System became unresponsive and required force quitting. This happened after closing the laptop lid and reopening — the system reported it had crashed.

Note: My previous machine (MacBook Air M4, 16 GB RAM) ran the same workload (Claude Code + Chrome with ~10 tabs) without any issues, so this is not a hardware capacity problem — it appears to be a memory leak in Claude Code itself.

What Should Happen?

Memory usage should remain stable at a reasonable level (under 2-3 GB) throughout a coding session. Memory should be released when operations complete. The process should not grow unbounded until the system runs out of application memory.

Error Messages/Logs

No error logs captured — system became unresponsive before logs could be saved. Force Quit dialog showed:
- Terminal: 108.28 GB
- Google Chrome (paused): 1.04 GB
- Activity Monitor: 59.3 MB
- Finder: 187.5 MB
- Swap Used: 41.62 GB

System message: "Your system has run out of application memory."

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Terminal on macOS Tahoe 26.3 (M5 Max, 36 GB RAM)
2. Start Claude Code session: claude
3. Use normally for coding tasks
4. Have Google Chrome open with ~10 tabs simultaneously
5. After some time of normal usage, system displays "out of application memory" warning
6. Activity Monitor shows Terminal process at ~108 GB, with claude.exe and node still active
7. System becomes unresponsive

Additional info:

• ~/.claude/session-env/ directory contains 49 entries (normal, not a runaway hook situation)
• No unusual MCP servers or plugins configured

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.132

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

Screenshots attached showing Force Quit dialog and Activity Monitor at the moment of the crash.

<img width="1319" height="843" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2b65850e-631a-4597-bca4-ee8be9559acd" />

<img width="290" height="360" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2834479b-2c6f-4360-9264-cf46a21c609c" />