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claude -p leaves orphaned MCP child processes after exit #42881
Description
Bug
When claude -p (non-interactive/programmatic mode) finishes execution, the CLI node.exe process exits but all MCP server child processes remain alive as orphans. They are never cleaned up.
Reproduction
# Count node.exe processes before
powershell -Command "(Get-Process node -EA Silent).Count"
# Run a simple prompt with MCP config
claude -p "respond with OK" --mcp-config mcp-config.json --strict-mcp-config
# Count after — orphaned MCP processes remain
powershell -Command "(Get-Process node -EA Silent).Count"The delta shows MCP servers (node.exe, python.exe) that were spawned by the CLI but never terminated.
Impact
In automated setups using Task Scheduler / cron with claude -p, each execution leaves 2-5 orphaned MCP processes (~80 MB each). With 4-6 scheduled runs per day, this accumulates to 10-30 zombie processes and ~1-2 GB of wasted RAM daily.
Environment
- Windows 11 Pro
- Claude Code 2.1.91
- MCPs configured via
--mcp-configwith--strict-mcp-config
Expected behavior
When claude -p exits, it should terminate all MCP child processes it spawned (e.g., via process tree kill or Job Object on Windows, process group kill on Linux/macOS).
Current workaround
A scheduled PowerShell script (mcp-health-check.ps1) runs every 30 minutes: finds all active Claude CLI processes, walks their descendant trees, identifies MCP-pattern processes not descended from any living CLI, and kills them.
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Activity
github-actions commentedon Apr 3, 2026
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
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github-actions commentedon Apr 6, 2026
This issue has been automatically closed as a duplicate of #40927.
If this is incorrect, please re-open this issue or create a new one.
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github-actions commentedon Apr 14, 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.