[BUG] Desktop app (Code): ~30s delay before any response on every prompt — including first message of a fresh chat. CLI on same machine is ~5s. #61898

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?

REOPENED: #61898 as Claude AI closed the original mistakenly thinking about duplication for the closed tickers.
This issue is alive and prospering.
Please fix it.

What Should Happen?

What's Wrong?
Environment

Claude Code desktop app (Code / local-agent-mode), latest version as of 2026-05-22
Bundled CLI: 2.1.150
OS: Windows 11
Hardware: Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 5070 Ti (not a hardware limitation)
Subscription: Claude Max
Summary
Every prompt in the desktop app's "Code" section sits with a blinking indicator / running timer for ~30–32s of dead time before Claude begins thinking or emits a single token. This happens even on the very first message of a brand-new chat, so it is not related to conversation length.

~32s/3min of dead time before anything happens, on every prompt.

Key evidence — it is NOT the API, account, network, or context size:

CLI on the same machine, same account, same API returns a trivial prompt in ~5.4s end-to-end (including process startup + MCP init). The desktop app takes ~32s before it even begins.
The delay did not change after clearing cache + restarting and after disconnecting most MCP connectors / plugin bundles. Context dropped from ~130k to ~107k tokens (11% of 1M), yet the delay stayed flat (30s → 32s) — so it is decoupled from context size.
Context breakdown at the time of a 32s delay: Messages 95k (just the conversation), Skills 16k, active MCP tools 1.6k. A fresh chat is far smaller and is still slow.
Network latency to the API is negligible.
Conclusion
The bottleneck is the Electron desktop renderer, not inference, account routing, or network. This matches the symptoms in https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/31643 (18+s desktop input lag, CLI instant on same machine) and https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/4896 (infinite React render loop in the skills system, all_skills.json 404 retry loop). Both were closed without a confirmed fix.

Related issues: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/31643, https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/4896

Impact
This is a paid Max subscription. A consistent ~30s startup penalty on the vendor's own desktop app, when the bundled CLI is 6x faster on identical inputs, is a significant regression. Requesting this be reopened/investigated.

What Should Happen?
First token / thinking begins within a few seconds, as it does in the CLI.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce
Steps to reproduce

Open a fresh chat in the desktop app (Code).
Send any prompt, even trivial (e.g. "say OK").
Observe ~30s of no activity before the response starts.
Claude Model
Opus

Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version
1.8089.0

Claude Code Version
2.1.150

Platform
Other

Operating System
Windows

Terminal/Shell
Other

Additional Information
I'm using Claude's desktop application in the code section and I'm not using the API but the Max plan.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.186 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_