[Windows ARM64] Claude Code CLI child process crashes intermittently with STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION (exit 3221225477)

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?

On Windows ARM64, starting a new Claude Code session inside the Claude desktop app fails roughly 50% of the time. The desktop app stays up; the embedded CLI child process (claude.exe) it spawns per session dies immediately with a native access violation before producing any response.

What Should Happen?

The CLI process should start reliably and respond to the first query, the same as it does on the other ~50% of attempts.

Error Messages/Logs

From %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\main.log:

[CCD CycleHealth] unhealthy cycle for <session-id> (11s, hadFirstResponse=false, reason=no_response)
Session <session-id> query error: Claude Code process exited with code 3221225477
3221225477 = 0xC0000005 = STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION. This exact signature occurred 356 times across 68 distinct minutes in one week of logs (2026-07-29 to 2026-08-07), across three different CLI versions and two app versions — so it's not tied to one build.

Also present throughout the same period (possibly related, possibly just noise from the same underlying process instability):

[CCD] Could not remove old version 2.1.219 (in use?): [Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink '...\claude-code\2.1.219\claude.exe']

Steps to Reproduce

On a Windows ARM64 machine, open the Claude desktop app.
Start a new Claude Code session repeatedly (new chat / new session).
Observe that roughly every other attempt, the session hangs for ~10s with no response, then errors out with the exit code above.
No special project, prompt, or MCP config is required to trigger it — it happens on session startup itself, before any model output.

Claude model

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.222 (also reproduced on 2.1.219 and 2.1.221)

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_