Multiple VS Code instances with terminal extensions running Claude Code result in recurring VS Code crashes

[tadasant]

Type: Bug

This is roughly how to reproduce this:

1. Open multiple VS Code instances (5-6 separate
   windows)
2. In each VS Code window, open a terminal and start
   Claude Code
3. Use Claude Code normally, often in parallel
4. Wait for crash - occurs randomly 3-4 times per day
   during normal usage

Expected Results: VS Code instances should remain stable
and not crash

Actual Results:

• All VS Code instances crash completely, closing
  the application
• Re-opening VS Code brings back the state of each window, but (1) sometimes (not always) Claude Code requires re-authentication with my account, and (2) I need to run claude --continue

I tried to run some crash analysis with Claude Code, here's what it came up with:

• Crash occurs with EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) and
  EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP) signals
• Crash signatures show:
  • node::OnFatalError →
    node::modules::BindingData::GetPackageJSON
  • Worker thread failures in module loading
  • Some crashes in ares_llist_node_first (DNS resolution)
• Crashes appear related to worker thread conflicts between
  multiple VS Code instances

Additional Context:

• System: macOS 15.5 (ARM64), VS Code 1.101.2 (Electron
  35.5.1)
• Have never experienced this kind of issue until I started using Claude Code across several VS Code's

VS Code version: Code 1.101.2 (2901c5a, 2025-06-24T20:27:15.391Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 24.5.0
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M4 Max (14 x 2400)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: enabled_on video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	4, 5, 7
Memory (System)	36.00GB (0.05GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id be86f9af-ff06-497a-b354-1919a7d25fd3
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (3)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
claude-code	Ant	1.0.35
copilot	Git	1.338.0
copilot-chat	Git	0.28.3

A/B Experiments

vsliv368:30146709
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805cf:30301675
binariesv615:30325510
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
962ge761:30959799
2e7ec940:31000449
pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dwnewjupyter:31046869
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc2:31192216
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
6074i472:31201624
dwoutputs:31242946
customenabled:31248079
9064b325:31222308
copilot_t_ci:31333650
e5gg6876:31282496
pythoneinst12:31285622
bgtreat:31268568
4gafe986:31271826
c7cif404:31314491
pythonpulldiag:31335739
6gi0g917:31259952
996jf627:31283433
pythonrdcb7:31303018
usemplatestapi:31297334
0aa6g176:31307128
7bj51361:31289155
747dc170:31275177
aj953862:31281341
generatesymbolt:31295002
convertfstringf:31295003
pylancequickfixt:31329274
convertlamdaf:31329270
i851h500:31338111
usemarketplace:31336439
nesew2to5:31336538
agentclaude:31335814
nes-diff-11:31337487
onetestforazureexp:31335613
63221493:31336333
yijiwantestdri0626-c:31336931

[tadasant]

This has been ongoing for a few weeks, so unlikely to be some single recent change. I wanted to make a report in the Claude Code extension repo, but https://github.com/anthropic-labs/vscode-mcp appears to be private.

I also had Claude Code put together a thorough crash dumps/logs archive immediately after one of the crashes occurred:

saved-crash-redacted.zip