[BUG] Excessive memory usage — ~700 MB RSS per CLI instance

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?

Each claude CLI process consumes ~700 MB of RSS memory, even at idle with no active task running. With two sessions open simultaneously, total consumption reaches ~1.4 GiB.

For a command-line tool, this is disproportionate and impacts machines with limited RAM.

$ ps aux | grep claude
  franck  349694  1.6  1.5  74293952  498324  pts/0  Sl+  09:43  claude
  franck  369976  1.1  1.1  73814468  371756  pts/2  Sl+  12:39  claude

What Should Happen?

A CLI tool at idle should consume a fraction of that — ideally under 150 MB RSS. And 150 MB is generous.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open two terminal sessions
2. Run claude in each
3. Run ps aux | grep claude — observe ~700 MB RSS per process

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.148

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

• Memory observed at idle, no active generation
• Node.js runtime overhead is the likely cause, but 700 MB is well beyond typical Node app baseline
• ollama serve (an actual inference daemon) uses only ~115 MB by comparison