[BUG] Windows application closes automatically after a minute in CODE-Mode (after updating to 1.2581.0)

[CHEFMODULE]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

The Windows application closes automatically after a minute (The problem only occurs in CODE mode)

• The Windows application works in chat and co-working mode
• without displaying an error message
• The problem occurred after the update to 1.2581.0

What I’ve already done:

• Uninstalled and reinstalled Claude. (File from the official website)
• Reinstalled the graphics card drivers
• Run Claude as an administrator

What Should Happen?

The Claude Windows application should not close automatically after one minute

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

I open the Windows app and click on CODE mode

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

1.2581.0

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

No response

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] Claude Code Desktop is crashing with new version #48281
2. [Windows Desktop] Frequent crashes, orphaned dev server processes, and zombie git processes after v1.2581.0 update #48398
3. Windows: Silent crash due to unbounded screen buffer with blit=0 (100% full redraws) on CMD + Windows Terminal #27360

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[CHEFMODULE]

Additional information:
Environment:

Windows 11
Claude Desktop version 1.2581.0 (f10398)
Claude Code v2.1.109

Additional troubleshooting performed:

Checked Windows Event Viewer (Application log): no "Application Error" entry is created when the crash occurs – the app terminates silently
Checked %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude\Logs: only contains chrome-native-host.txt from April 7, no logs generated at crash time
Checked %USERPROFILE%.claude\debug: only contains a stale symlink from March 11
Checked %USERPROFILE%.claude\sessions: folder is empty after each crash, but modification timestamp updates (suggests crash happens during session initialization)
Checked %USERPROFILE%.claude\backups: a new .claude.json.backup is written on each launch attempt (12:11, 12:13, 12:15, 17:40, 20:53 today)
Temporarily renamed mcp.json to mcp.json.bak – crash still occurs, so MCP servers are not the cause
Running claude directly from terminal (cmd.exe in C:\Claude) works perfectly and stays stable – the issue is specific to the Code tab integration in the Desktop GUI, not Claude Code itself

Behavior before crash:

App opens normally, Code tab loads without errors
User can type prompts and receive responses from the agent
After approximately 60 seconds the entire Windows application closes without any error dialog or notification

Possibly related issues: #37822, #27820, #26638

[CHEFMODULE]

Additional finding – crash is not limited to the Code tab itself:
The instability persists across tabs once the Code tab has been active in the current session:

Starting the app and using only Chat or Cowork → stable indefinitely
Opening the Code tab → crash after ~60 seconds (as previously reported)
After the crash, relaunching the app: if Code was the last-opened tab, the app reloads into Code and crashes again within ~60 seconds during startup
If Code has been opened in the current session and the user switches to Cowork (or another tab), the entire app still crashes after a short delay

This suggests that opening the Code tab initializes a background process or timer that is not bound to the tab's UI lifecycle. Closing or leaving the Code tab does not stop the crash trigger.
Stable usage is only possible if the Code tab is never touched during the entire session.
Workaround currently in use: keep the Desktop app on Chat/Cowork tabs, run Claude Code directly from the terminal (cmd.exe → claude), which remains fully stable.

[davidholmes986-hue]

Confirming same issue on v1.2773.0 (884b37) — Windows 11, 32GB RAM.
App hangs and is force-closed by Windows within ~10 seconds of clicking the Code tab. Also crashes when switching back from Code to Chat. 100% reproducible every attempt.
Event Viewer confirms Application Hang on claude.exe v1.2773.0.0 — no error dialog, silent close identical to what's described here.
Your finding matches exactly — Chat-only sessions are stable, touching the Code tab triggers the hang regardless of which tab you're on afterward.
Filed as #48926 before finding this thread. Linking here for visibility.
Upvoting this issue. Hope a patch comes soon — this is blocking active development work.

[davidholmes986-hue]

Still occurring on v1.3109.0 after today's update — not fixed. Same hang behavior on Chat ↔ Code tab switch, Windows 11.

[davidholmes986-hue]

Still occurring on v1.3561.0 — not fixed. Same crash on Chat ↔ Code tab switch, Windows 11.

[ShujinkoLLC]

Root cause (from local crash dump analysis on Windows 11, app v1.2581.0):

Electron main-process Node hits V8 heap OOM:

ERROR:electron\shell\common\node_bindings.cc:185] OOM error in V8:
CALL_AND_RETRY_LAST Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory
(From %APPDATA%\Claude\Crashpad\reports*.dmp)

Trigger: When the Code tab warms, the app scans every transcript under %USERPROFILE%.claude\projects\ for the /stats panel. Preceding log line in %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\main.log:

[CCD] /stats scanning 1725/1725 transcript files since 2025-10-22
My transcript store was 4.7 GB across 1,726 JSONL files, with a single 1.9 GB file. Loading that as a UTF-16 JS string blows past V8's default ~4 GB old-space limit every launch, hence the reliable ~1-minute crash (OOM happens as scanning progresses).

Workaround that fixes it immediately: move the handful of largest JSONLs out of .claude\projects. The crash disappears.

Suggested fix: stream-parse transcripts instead of reading whole files, or skip/truncate files above a size threshold in the stats scanner, or bump --max-old-space-size on the main process.

[davidholmes986-hue]

Fix found — Code tab OOM crash on Windows
Root cause: Opening the Code tab triggers a scan of every transcript file in .claude\projects\ for the /stats panel. If you have large JSONL files it runs out of memory and crashes silently. My machine had 1,725 transcript files totaling 4.7GB — one file was 2.09GB. Instant crash every time.
Fix: Move any transcript files over 500MB out of .claude\projects\ entirely — not into a subfolder, the scanner recurses everything inside that folder. I moved mine to .claude_archive and the Code tab opened immediately on relaunch.
Suggested fix for Anthropic: Stream-parse transcripts instead of loading whole files into memory, or skip files above a size threshold in the stats scanner. Heavy Claude Code users will accumulate large transcript files naturally over time and hit this repeatedly.