claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Memory leak in long-running session: RSS grows to 12+ GB within minutes (v2.1.143, WSL2) [2 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

The claude CLI process exhibits rapid, unbounded memory growth during a single interactive session. RSS grew from ~900 MB to 12.6 GB in roughly 12 minutes of normal use, eventually exhausting available RAM and causing the system to swap.

Environment

• Claude Code: 2.1.143 (installed via official install.sh to ~/.local/share/claude/versions/)
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS on WSL2
• Kernel: Linux 5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2
• RAM: 19 GiB total
• Shell: bash

Observed memory growth (single session, PID 56340)

State stayed in R/Rl+ (actively running, not blocked on I/O). Exiting the session immediately released all memory. Starting a fresh session begins again at ~900 MB and grows similarly.

Also seen: runaway claude update

Separately, running claude update consumed 14.8 GB RSS over ~12 minutes before I killed it. It left behind a 0-byte versions/2.1.144 file. Possibly related (same allocation path?), possibly distinct.

Reproduction

1. Start claude in a project directory.
2. Use normally — file reads, Bash tool calls, conversational turns.
3. Monitor with ps -o pid,rss,pcpu,etime -p $(pgrep -f '^claude$').

Reported previously by me as occurring on 2.1.142 as well; the upgrade to 2.1.143 did not change behavior (yesterday's apparent "fix" was the restart, not the version bump).

Workaround

Exit and restart claude periodically.