[Bug] Desktop app stalls indefinitely on large payloads while CLI completes same tasks normally
Bug Description
Desktop app stalls indefinitely on "Waiting for Claude…"; Terminal CLI completes the identical task in ~3 minutes.
Environment: macOS, MacBook Air, Claude Code v2.1.239 (CLI). Desktop app on the same machine, same account, same network, no VPN or proxy. Project is a small PHP/JS web app (~700-line CSS file, ~1100-line JS file).
Symptoms, 21–22 August 2026:
- Desktop app: tasks stall on "Waiting for Claude…" for 5–45 minutes without completing. Also seen: "API Error: Connection dropped (ECONNRESET)", "API Error: The response stopped arriving", and "Request failed · retrying (7/10)" running past 23 minutes.
- Failures correlate with payload size. Small edits (renaming a string) usually complete. Whole-file reads, multi-file diagnostics, and browser-verification steps almost always stall or drop.
- Partial work is a recurring consequence: files edited on disk but the task never reaches commit/deploy, so the session ends in an inconsistent state.
Network ruled out:
- Failed on home Wi-Fi (Genexis Aura E750, fibre) on both a DFS channel (504) and a non-DFS channel (44).
- Failed while tethered to an iPhone 5G hotspot as well.
- Claude web chat on the same machine and network has worked continuously throughout with no failures at all.
Key comparison:
Installed the CLI today. The exact task the desktop app had failed to complete over ~45 minutes — read a todo file, diff working tree, commit, push, run a deploy script, verify by curl — completed in the CLI in 3 minutes 8 seconds on the first attempt, on the same machine, network and account. A second CLI task also completed cleanly.
That points to something in the desktop app's request handling rather than the network or the API itself, though the ECONNRESET errors resemble issue reports filed around 17 August against both the app and the CLI.
Impact: roughly a full working day lost to stalled and half-completed tasks.
Environment Info
- Platform: darwin
- Terminal: Apple_Terminal
- Version: 2.1.239
- Feedback ID: f85ee445-8c1e-4b76-ae99-eccf786dd7b0
Errors
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