Kernel panic: 3 Claude processes hit 17.3 GB resident on 18 GB machine, MacBook powered off (v2.1.37) #24960
Description
Preflight Checklist
- I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
- This is a single bug report
- I am using the latest version of Claude Code
What's Wrong?
This is my third report in 4 days. Each time worse. This time Claude Code caused a kernel panic — my MacBook physically shut down.
- Memory spike: 3 processes peaked at 12.7 GB combined on 18 GB machine (v2.1.34, macOS native) #24113 (Feb 8): 12.7 GB, swap 96%, still usable
- Single Claude process consumed 36 GB on 18 GB machine, triggering Jetsam OOM kill (v2.1.37) #24583 (Feb 10): 36 GB single process, Jetsam kill, hard reboot
- Today (Feb 11): Kernel panic. Forced power-off. Fan noise audible before crash.
I was doing normal single-user work. Within ~15 minutes the system froze and died.
The Numbers
From the kernel panic log (panic-full-2026-02-11-195623.0002.panic):
| PID | Resident Memory |
|---|---|
| 90079 | 7,095 MB |
| 67596 | 5,442 MB |
| 90331 | 4,721 MB |
| 5 others | ~1,386 MB combined |
| Total (8 processes) | 18,643 MB |
18.2 GB resident on 18 GB RAM. System had 47 MB free. Watchdog couldn't check in for 93 seconds → kernel panic.
panic(cpu 6 caller 0xfffffe0051cee31c): watchdog timeout: no checkins
from watchdogd in 93 seconds
Why is this still happening?
This memory leak pattern has been reported since v2.1.34. I've provided Jetsam logs, footprint data, and now a full kernel panic dump. Other users report the same (#24644, #23442, #4953). The native macOS app is bricking machines.
Is there a timeline for a fix? Is there anything else I can provide to help debug this?
Environment
- Claude Code: 2.1.37 (native macOS)
- macOS: 26.1 (25B78), Apple M3 Pro, 18 GB
- Terminal: Ghostty
Diagnostic Files
All in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ — happy to upload:
panic-full-2026-02-11-195623.0002.panicResetCounter-2026-02-11-195626.diag
Activity
github-actions commentedon Feb 11, 2026
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
Piesson commentedon Feb 11, 2026
Should I just go back to nom version? :(
Piesson commentedon Feb 25, 2026
Update: Root cause identified — this is a Ghostty terminal bug, not Claude Code
After further investigation, the memory consumption I reported was caused by a memory leak in Ghostty (my terminal emulator), not Claude Code itself.
Root cause: Ghostty has a bug in scrollback pruning where non-standard pages are resized to standard size, causing
munmapto never be called. Claude Code's output (heavy multi-codepoint grapheme sequences) triggers this leak at scale.References:
Status: Fixed on Ghostty's main branch. Will ship in Ghostty 1.3.0 (expected March 2026). Workaround:
scrollback-limit = 2500in Ghostty config.Apologies for the noise — closing this issue.
Piesson commentedon Feb 25, 2026
Closing — root cause is Ghostty memory leak, not Claude Code.
github-actions commentedon Mar 4, 2026
This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.