[BUG] `Failed to authenticate. API Error: 401 Invalid authentication credentials` and THEN: `Claude configuration file at /Users/<user>/.claude.json is corrupted: Unexpected end of JSON input` when tried to do `claude -p`

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?

Just suddenly started to throw:
"Failed to authenticate. API Error: 401 Invalid authentication credentials"

And then when I wanted to export the conversation and hit claude -p in terminal, it gave Claude configuration file at /Users/<user>/.claude.json is corrupted: Unexpected end of JSON input

What Should Happen?

No corruption.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

No specific steps. Just suddenly started to throw this every request:
"Failed to authenticate. API Error: 401 Invalid authentication credentials"

And then when I wanted to export the conversation and hit claude -p in terminal, it gave Claude configuration file at /Users/<user>/.claude.json is corrupted: Unexpected end of JSON input

Did not do anything special. I think maybe concurrent agents were working on 2 separate repos, but I'm not sure. Regardless, it was a normal workflow.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Code v2.1.168

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

_No response_