Summary
The Claude desktop app spawns headless claude CLI sessions for Local Agent Mode but does not appear to reap them. Over a 2-day uptime, ~56 background agent sessions (each a disclaimer wrapper + claude Node child = ~112 processes) accumulated, plus their subagent/MCP children.
Environment
- Claude desktop app: 1.6259.1
- Bundled claude-code CLI: 2.1.128 (from
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.128/)
- macOS 26.4.1 (arm64)
- Two interactive
claude CLI sessions also running (unrelated, accounted for ~4 of the processes)
Observed
ps -axo pid,ppid,command | awk '/[c]laude/' | wc -l -> 162 claude processes- 56 of them are direct children of the desktop app (
/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude, PID 52218)
- All 56 share the Local Agent Mode invocation pattern:
--input-format stream-json --output-format stream-json--allow-dangerously-skip-permissions --permission-mode auto--allowedTools mcp__computer-use,mcp__ccd_session__spawn_task,mcp__ccd_session__mark_chapter,mcp__ccd_session_mgmt__list_sessions--plugin-dir paths under local-agent-mode-sessions/
- Process ETIMEs span from ~1 minute to 1 day 18 hours -- sessions clearly persist long after their work completes
- Aggregate memory: ~12 GB resident across the family (each ~200 MB RSS, 19-20 threads, 80-100 ports)
Expected
Local Agent Mode sessions should be reaped after task completion, or at minimum on a sane idle timeout. They should not accumulate indefinitely across the desktop app lifetime.
Workaround
Quitting and relaunching the desktop app clears them, but state is lost.
Notes
This is the first user-visible symptom for me -- caught it at 24 GB memory used, 19 GB swap. On lower-memory machines this would degrade the system noticeably.
Summary
The Claude desktop app spawns headless
claudeCLI sessions for Local Agent Mode but does not appear to reap them. Over a 2-day uptime, ~56 background agent sessions (each adisclaimerwrapper +claudeNode child = ~112 processes) accumulated, plus their subagent/MCP children.Environment
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code/2.1.128/)claudeCLI sessions also running (unrelated, accounted for ~4 of the processes)Observed
ps -axo pid,ppid,command | awk '/[c]laude/' | wc -l-> 162claudeprocesses/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude, PID 52218)--input-format stream-json --output-format stream-json--allow-dangerously-skip-permissions --permission-mode auto--allowedTools mcp__computer-use,mcp__ccd_session__spawn_task,mcp__ccd_session__mark_chapter,mcp__ccd_session_mgmt__list_sessions--plugin-dirpaths underlocal-agent-mode-sessions/Expected
Local Agent Mode sessions should be reaped after task completion, or at minimum on a sane idle timeout. They should not accumulate indefinitely across the desktop app lifetime.
Workaround
Quitting and relaunching the desktop app clears them, but state is lost.
Notes
This is the first user-visible symptom for me -- caught it at 24 GB memory used, 19 GB swap. On lower-memory machines this would degrade the system noticeably.