[BUG] "Prompt is too long" error mid-response, session stuck with --resume for 8+ hours

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?

Version: anthropic.claude-code-2.1.143-darwin-x64
OS: macOS
Session ID: b6428201-1d21-47ce-aa49-77c31684537f
Sequence of events:

Previous session grew to 28MB JSONL, entered compaction loop with no warning, was manually deleted
New session started, project re-explained to Claude (~1 hour of work)
Claude processed a 4-line prompt, began thinking, planned changes to theme.ts, started writing the file (69 lines shown in UI)
Mid-write: "Prompt is too long" error appeared
All subsequent prompts including "test" (4 chars) returned "Prompt is too long"
Final prompt returned "Prompt is too long" followed by "No response requested"
Claude Code process remained alive for 8+ hours with --resume b6428201..., consuming 532MB RAM
Session JSONL at time of failure: 1.5MB — ruling out conversation history as cause
lsof shows process working directory was /Users/kent (home), not project directory — not holding any project files open
session-env directory for the session was empty
file-history shows largest files accessed were ~48KB and ~70KB React components
JSONL contains no "path" keys — file path tracking appears absent from this session

Third-party plugins installed: thedotmack marketplace plugin (includes worker-service, MCP server, SQLite session store)

The above was generated by Claude AI. I ran a number of terminal commands at claude.ai's request and the findings were apparently interesting. I have attached the

<img width="860" height="775" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/93289c1f-f28c-49bd-b4bb-4f76373cc1aa" />

Terminal Saved Output.txt

complete chat, including the output of the teminal commands in the PDF. I have a compressed copy of the entire claude folder at the time of the conversation.

Claude code prompt length errors in VSCode - Claude.pdf

What Should Happen?

Claude should not say "Prompt is too long"

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

cannot reproduce

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

anthropic.claude-code-2.1.143-darwin-x64

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_