›_ Claude Code Issues
Claude Code Issues / #7455

[BUG] Freezing Issues at Session Resuming (with `claude --continue` and `claude --resume`) after Ctrl+C interruption on Windows

Resolved 💬 14 comments Opened Sep 11, 2025 by FojiSan Closed Jan 22, 2026

Bug Report: Freezing Issues at Session Resuming (with claude --continue and claude --resume) after Ctrl+C interruption on Windows

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Bug Summary

claude --continue permanently freezes after Ctrl+C interruption - survives reinstalls and persists system-wide

Description

CRITICAL: claude --continue experiences complete and permanent freezing after a specific trigger event on Windows. The issue persists across Claude Code reinstalls, chat log deletion, and different shells/directories, indicating system-level state corruption.

Trigger Event: Interrupting Claude Code with Ctrl+C during command execution that encounters errors, then retrying other commands before exit.

Post-trigger Behavior: All subsequent claude --continue attempts result in complete terminal freeze requiring force-kill, regardless of shell (PowerShell, CMD, Git Bash) or working directory. claude --resume experiences temporary UI freezing but eventually recovers.

Environment Details

  • OS: Windows 11
  • Shell: PowerShell
  • Claude Code Installation: npm (npm install -g claude-code)
  • Node.js: Managed via Volta (installed via Scoop scoop install volta then volta install node)
  • Git:
  • Git for Windows (installed via Scoop scoop install git)
  • Git Bash path declared as $env:CLAUDE_CODE_GIT_BASH_PATH = "$env:USERPROFILE\scoop\apps\git\current\bin\bash.exe"

Reproduction Steps

Trigger Sequence (One-time corruption event)

  1. Install Claude Code via npm: npm install -g claude-code
  2. Start any Claude Code session in PowerShell
  3. Run commands that encounter errors
  4. Interrupt with Ctrl+C during error handling (Claude retrying other commands)
  5. Exit the session with Ctrl+C

Permanent Impact (Persists after trigger)

  • Any subsequent claude --continue attempt from any shell/directory → Complete freeze
  • Cross-shell corruption: Trigger in PowerShell corrupts all shells (PowerShell, CMD, Git Bash)
  • Reinstalling Claude Code → Issue persists
  • Deleting chat logs/sessions → Issue persists
  • Different working directories → Issue persists

Specific Behaviors

claude --continue
  • Before trigger event: Works normally
  • After trigger event: PERMANENTLY broken - completely freezes every time
  • Persistence: Survives Claude Code reinstalls, log deletion, system reboots
  • Cross-shell impact: PowerShell trigger corrupts functionality in PowerShell, CMD, and Git Bash
  • System-wide: Affects all directories and user contexts
  • Location: Freeze occurs after entering chat session, at prompt level
  • Debug messages before freeze:
[DEBUG] AutoUpdaterWrapper: Installation type: unknown, using native: false
[DEBUG] Shell snapshot created successfully (5007 bytes)
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config
claude --resume
  • Successfully lists available sessions
  • Freezes at session selection interface (arrow keys and Enter unresponsive)
  • Duration is variable (from dozens of seconds to several minutes)
  • Eventually becomes responsive, allowing session selection and normal operation
  • Location: Freeze occurs after showing session list, during interactive selection

Debug Investigation

Debug Output Analysis

claude --resume --debug

During freeze period:

  • No debug messages appear (complete silence)
  • Process appears hung but isn't consuming high resources

After freeze ends, repeated auto-updater messages appear:

[DEBUG] AutoUpdaterWrapper: Installation type: unknown, using native: false
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config
[DEBUG] AutoUpdaterWrapper: Installation type: unknown, using native: false
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config

Expected Behavior

  • Session loading should be fast and responsive
  • --continue should resume most recent session without hanging
  • --resume should show session selection promptly
  • Auto-updater should detect npm installation type correctly

Actual Behavior

  • Variable freeze duration during session loading operations
  • No debug output during freeze - suggests hang before debug logging starts
  • Auto-updater runs in loop after freeze - separate issue from the freeze itself
  • Different freeze patterns between --continue (complete hang) and --resume (eventual recovery)

Technical Analysis

Updated Root Cause Assessment

Based on debug investigation, there are two distinct freeze locations:

--continue Freeze (Post-initialization)
  1. Prompt-level hang: Freeze occurs after successful session restoration, at interactive prompt
  2. Shell snapshot success: System successfully creates shell snapshot (5007 bytes)
  3. Auto-updater correlation: Freeze happens immediately after auto-updater "fallback to config" message
  4. Complete lockup: Requires force termination
--resume Freeze (Interactive UI)
  1. UI responsiveness issue: Freeze occurs at interactive selection interface
  2. Input handling bottleneck: Arrow keys and Enter become unresponsive
  3. Variable duration: Eventually recovers, improves with subsequent attempts
  4. Session listing works: Successfully displays available sessions before freeze

Freeze Location Mapping

| Command | Freeze Location | Debug Output Before Freeze | Recovery |
|---------|-----------------|----------------------------|----------|
| --continue | After entering chat session (prompt level) | Shell snapshot + auto-updater messages | Requires force-kill |
| --resume | Interactive session selection interface | Auto-updater messages (after recovery) | Eventually recovers |

Performance Characteristics

  • Resource Usage: Normal/low CPU and RAM during freeze
  • Duration: Variable (dozens of seconds to several minutes)
  • Pattern: Reduces over multiple attempts (suggesting caching or cleanup)
  • Trigger: More severe after Ctrl+C interruption during errors

Additional Issues Identified

Auto-updater Installation Detection

Separate from the freeze issue, auto-updater repeatedly fails to detect npm installation:

  • Shows "Installation type: unknown" in loop
  • Falls back to config repeatedly
  • This happens after session loading completes

Suggested Investigation Areas

CRITICAL - System-level state corruption:

  1. Persistent configuration corruption: What system-level config/registry entries survive reinstalls?
  2. Windows user profile corruption: Check for Claude Code entries in user profile that persist
  3. Auto-updater config persistence: Investigate auto-updater configuration storage outside Claude directory
  4. Signal handling state: How Ctrl+C during errors corrupts persistent system state
  5. npm global cache corruption: Check if npm global installation cache stores corrupted state
  6. Windows registry entries: Look for Claude Code registry entries that survive reinstalls
  7. User environment variables: Check for persistent environment variable corruption

Workaround

  • For --resume: Wait through the freeze - it eventually becomes responsive
  • For --continue: Use claude --resume and manually select the most recent session

Labels Suggestion

  • bug
  • critical
  • windows
  • system-corruption
  • npm-installation
  • has-repro
  • persistent-state

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

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