Claude Code Agent Loading Issue on Remote Server

[Cyli00]

Reproduction steps

1. Established SSH connection with remote server
2. Claude code has been installed on the remote server via curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
3. The Claude code agent in the right panel shows loading status and fails to complete loading after a long time
4. Multiple Claude processes are found running on the server when checking memory usage

   leahd      81394  5.0  4.1 10236932 249424 ?     Sl   18:16   0:02 claude
   leahd      80565  1.3  3.5 10236968 216316 ?     Sl   18:13   0:02 claude
   leahd      75881  0.1  3.5 10236452 215808 ?     Sl   17:46   0:03 claude
   

Zed version and system specs

Zed: v0.220.2+stable.125.bf99a017312d2325476557e590b9dfb4f71241cf (Zed)
OS: Windows 10.0.26200
Memory: 31.9 GiB
Architecture: x86_64
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB || NVIDIA Corporation || 566.36 r566_31

Attach Zed log file

Zed.log

2026-01-21T23:02:46+08:00 INFO  [remote_server::unix] (remote server) Got new node settings: NodeBinarySettings { path: None, npm_path: None, ignore_system_version: false }
2026-01-21T23:02:46+08:00 INFO  [project::prettier_store] (remote server) Initializing default prettier with plugins {}
2026-01-21T23:02:46+08:00 INFO  [node_runtime] (remote server) using Node.js found on PATH: SystemNodeRuntime { node: "/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/bin/node", npm: "/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/bin/npm", global_node_modules: "/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules\n", scratch_dir: "/home/leahd/.local/share/zed/node" }
2026-01-21T23:02:46+08:00 ERROR [remote::remote_client] (remote server) server:error handling message. type:GetAgentServerCommand, error:failed to execute npm install subcommand: stdout: "" stderr: "/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli/validate-engines.js:29\n    throw err\n    ^\n\nError: ENOENT: no such file or directory, uv_cwd\n    at process.wrappedCwd (node:internal/bootstrap/switches/does_own_process_state:142:28)\n    at process.cwd (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/graceful-fs/polyfills.js:10:19)\n    at new Config (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/config/lib/index.js:79:19)\n    at new Npm (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/npm.js:67:19)\n    at module.exports (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli/entry.js:14:15)\n    at module.exports (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli/validate-engines.js:37:10)\n    at module.exports (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli.js:12:31)\n    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/leahd/.nvm/versions/node/v24.12.0/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js:2:25)\n    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1761:14)\n    at Object..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1893:10) {\n  errno: -2,\n  code: 'ENOENT',\n  syscall: 'uv_cwd'\n}\n\nNode.js v24.12.0\n"

[Wwaste]

I'm experiencing the same issue on macOS → Linux SSH (not Windows).

Environment

• Local: macOS Sequoia (Apple Silicon, arm64)
• Remote: Linux (RHEL/CentOS, HPC cluster)
• Zed Version: 0.221.5
• ACP Version: 0.13.2

Working Configuration (from historical logs)

• Zed: 0.220.2
• ACP: 0.12.6 (@zed-industries/claude-code-acp@0.12.6)

Evidence

The issue appears to be a regression when ACP upgraded from 0.12.6 to 0.13.2.

Working logs (Jan 17, Zed 0.219.4):
```
Spawning Claude Code: .../external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.12.6/...
```

Current logs (Feb 02, Zed 0.221.5):

• No "Spawning Claude Code" logs at all for remote connections
• Local Claude Code works fine

Workaround Attempt

Manually installing @zed-industries/claude-code-acp@0.12.6 and locking with file permissions - testing in progress.

Impact

This blocks my entire remote development workflow on HPC. Would appreciate if this could be prioritized.

[Wwaste]

Summary of Our Debugging Journey

I'd like to share our complete debugging process, which may help the Zed team identify and fix this issue.

Addressing the Issue in Comment 1 (ACP Version Regression)

In my first comment, I suspected the issue was caused by ACP upgrading from 0.12.6 to 0.13.2. Here's how we attempted to solve it:

Our Solution Attempt for ACP Version Issue

Step 1: Downgrade Zed

# Disabled auto-update in ~/.config/zed/settings.json
"auto_update": false

# Installed Zed 0.220.5 (which historically worked with ACP 0.12.6)

Step 2: Manually Install ACP 0.12.6 on Remote Server

# Set up Node.js path
export PATH="$HOME/.local/share/zed/node/node-v24.11.0-linux-x64/bin:$PATH"

# Clean and reinstall ACP 0.12.6
rm -rf ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/*
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.12.6
cd ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.12.6
npm init -y
npm install @zed-industries/claude-code-acp@0.12.6
# Output: added 112 packages

Step 3: Lock ACP Version to Prevent Zed Auto-Upgrade

# Make 0.12.6 read-only
chmod -R 555 ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.12.6

# Create a locked 0.13.2 directory to block Zed from installing it
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.13.2
chmod 000 ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.13.2

Step 4: Verify Installation

# Verify directory structure
ls -la ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/
# Expected:
# dr-xr-xr-x  0.12.6   ← Read-only
# d---------  0.13.2   ← Fully locked

# Verify CLI works
node ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.12.6/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk/cli.js --version
# Output: 2.0.70 (Claude Code) ← CLI works!

Result: ACP Version Fix - NOW WORKING! ✅

After completing all steps above:

• ✅ ACP 0.12.6 installed correctly (112 packages)
• ✅ Version locked successfully
• ✅ CLI runs independently (--version works)
• ✅ Claude Code now works on remote SSH!

Update: After Zed restart, the ACP 0.12.6 + version lock solution does work. The earlier errors may have been transient or related to stale state.

Conclusion: The workaround is effective. Keep ACP locked at 0.12.6 until Zed officially fixes the remote SSH compatibility issue.

Environment

Component	Value
Local OS	macOS Sequoia 15.x (Apple Silicon, arm64)
Remote OS	Linux (RHEL/CentOS, HPC cluster)
Zed Version	0.220.5
ACP Version	0.12.6 (manually installed & locked)
Node.js	v24.11.0 (Zed-managed)

[Wwaste]

Cause Confirmed

ACP 0.13.2 has a bug where it tries to read the project directory as a file on remote SSH connections:

ERROR OpenBufferByPath failed: reading bytes of "/data/home/user/project_directory"

ACP 0.12.6 works correctly. The issue is that Zed automatically upgrades to 0.13.2 on each launch.

Workaround

Lock the ACP directory on the remote server to prevent Zed from installing 0.13.2:

# Run on remote server before starting Zed
chmod 755 ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.13.2
chmod -R 555 ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp/0.12.6
chmod 555 ~/.local/share/zed/external_agents/claude-code-acp

This keeps 0.12.6 intact and blocks new installations. After running this, Claude Code works correctly on remote SSH.

Environment

• Local: macOS Sequoia (Apple Silicon)
• Remote: Linux (RHEL/CentOS, HPC cluster)
• Zed: 0.220.5
• ACP 0.12.6: Works
• ACP 0.13.2: Broken (OpenBufferByPath bug)

The workaround needs to be run before each Zed session since Zed may reset permissions. A proper fix in ACP 0.13.x would be appreciated.

[lthoerner]

I can confirm I am having this issue as well, also running MacOS remoted into Linux. Zed occasionally fully disconnects from Claude such that it does not recognize it is installed and I have to run agent: open claude agent onboarding model. I checked and over the course of about a week I have managed to open 30 separate Claude instances that were all still running, along with the ACP process for each of them. I have not run into the disconnect issue 30 times, which leads me to believe it might be creating a new process every time a thread is opened.