claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug] REPL silently exits to PowerShell prompt mid-turn on dense subprocess chains [1 participants]

Symptom: REPL process disappears silently. Parent PowerShell tab survives, dropping to bare PS C:...> prompt. No error, no traceback, no recovery banner. Recovery via claude --continue works but loses the in-progress turn, requiring a manual "continue" prompt to resume the agent.

TL;DR

The issue can be mitigated by setting the CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1 environment variable, which has been shown to reduce the frequency of the REPL silently exiting.

Guidance

• The crash typically occurs during dense subprocess chains in a single turn, specifically Edit/Update operations interleaved with PowerShell tool calls, suggesting that the issue may be related to the interaction between Claude and PowerShell.
• Setting CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1 has been shown to reduce the frequency of the issue, but not eliminate it, indicating that this may be a partial workaround.
• The issue has been reported to persist across multiple versions, including 2.1.114 through 2.1.128, suggesting that a more fundamental fix may be required.
• Recovery via claude --continue works but loses the in-progress turn, requiring a manual "continue" prompt to resume the agent, which may be a useful temporary workaround.

Notes

The issue appears to be related to the interaction between Claude and PowerShell, and the CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1 environment variable may be a useful mitigation strategy. However, a more fundamental fix may be required to fully resolve the issue.

Recommendation

Apply workaround: setting CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=1 has been shown to reduce the frequency of the issue, and may be a useful temporary solution until a more fundamental fix is available.