Claude Code Memory Leak? One Command to Save Your MacBook

TL;DR: I built an open-source tool to fix this → claude-code-cleanup

Recently while using Claude Code and Codex CLI, I noticed a problem: my MacBook kept getting slower, with the fans spinning like crazy.

Opening Activity Monitor revealed dozens of claude processes running in the background, each consuming 60-170MB of memory. Some users have reported accumulations up to 30GB.

This isn’t just me. A quick search through GitHub Issues confirmed this is a known bug that hasn’t been officially fixed yet.

How Bad Is It?

I found numerous related issues in the official Claude Code and Codex CLI repositories:

Claude Code:

• #19433 — /exit command doesn’t terminate child processes, causing orphan process buildup
• #20369 — Sub-agent processes not cleaned up when parent terminal closes, accumulating 30GB memory
• #11377 — Process consuming 23GB RAM, 143% CPU
• #4953 — Process grew to 120GB+, killed by OOM killer
• #18859 — After 18 hours idle, each session accumulates ~15GB memory

Codex CLI:

• #7932 — Background process leak + missing job control, processes continue after Esc exit
• #9345 — Severe memory leak

All these issues are still Open. No official fix has been provided.

Root Cause

The problem lies in child process management:

Main Claude/Codex process (terminated by /exit or closing terminal)
├── Child process 1 (never received termination signal → becomes orphan)
├── Child process 2 (never received termination signal → becomes orphan)
└── Child process N (accumulating... 60-170MB each)

When you close Claude Code or Codex CLI, the main process terminates, but its child processes aren’t properly cleaned up. These orphan processes’ parent process ID (PPID) becomes 1, and they continue running in the background, consuming memory.

Solutions

Since the official fix isn’t here yet, let’s take matters into our own hands.

I’ve written a complete cleanup tool, open-sourced on GitHub: claude-code-cleanup

It includes:

• ccclean.sh — A complete cleanup script with interactive UI
• Claude Code Skill — Supports the /ccclean command

Here are solutions of varying complexity.

Solution 1: Manual Cleanup (Immediate Effect)

# Check how many orphan Claude processes exist
ps aux | grep '[c]laude' | awk '$7 == "??" {print $2}' | wc -l

# Kill all orphan processes
ps aux | grep '[c]laude' | awk '$7 == "??" {print $2}' | xargs kill -9 2>/dev/null

# Or the simple approach: kill all Claude-related processes
pkill -f claude

# Same for Codex CLI
pkill -f codex

Solution 2: Add a Quick Alias

Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:

alias claude-cleanup='ps aux | grep "[c]laude" | awk "\$7 == \"??\" {print \$2}" | xargs kill -9 2>/dev/null && echo "✅ Claude orphan processes cleaned"'

Then just run claude-cleanup whenever needed.

Solution 3: Automatic Scheduled Cleanup

If you often forget to clean up manually, set up an hourly daemon:

cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.claude-cleanup.plist << 'PLIST'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.user.claude-cleanup</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>ps aux | grep '[c]laude' | awk '$7 == "??" {print $2}' | xargs kill -9 2>/dev/null || true</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>3600</integer>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
PLIST

# Load the daemon
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.claude-cleanup.plist

Management commands:

# Check status
launchctl list | grep claude-cleanup

# Manually trigger a cleanup
launchctl start com.user.claude-cleanup

# Want to remove it? Unload it
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.claude-cleanup.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.claude-cleanup.plist

Solution 4: Complete Cleanup Script (Recommended)

For a safer, more comprehensive solution, use my ccclean.sh script:

# Download
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/YuancFeng/claude-code-cleanup/main/ccclean.sh
chmod +x ccclean.sh

# Run
./ccclean.sh

Safety features of this script:

• Precise matching: Only kills processes named exactly claude, won’t kill other programs
• PID reuse protection: Verifies process start time before killing, prevents killing new processes
• Runtime protection: Skips processes running less than 5 minutes
• Double confirmation: Lists all candidate processes, lets you select, then confirms again
• Graceful termination: Sends SIGTERM first, waits, then sends SIGKILL

Daily Usage Tips

Until the official fix arrives, these habits can help reduce the problem:

Summary

Claude Code is a powerful tool, but this memory leak issue definitely affects the experience. Hopefully the official fix comes soon.

Until then, claude-cleanup is your best friend.

Open Source Tool

I’ve open-sourced the complete solution on GitHub:

YuancFeng/claude-code-cleanup

It includes two tools:

1. ccclean.sh — A standalone bash script with interactive UI, ready to download and run
2. Claude Code Skill — If you’re also using Claude Code, copy skill/SKILL.md to your skills directory, then use the /ccclean command directly

Stars and Issues are welcome.

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes Claude Code’s memory usage to keep climbing until it exhausts RAM?

Mostly orphaned processes. When you leave Claude Code with /exit or simply close the terminal, the main process ends, but child processes it started (sub-agents, for example) never receive a termination signal. Their parent process ID (PPID) becomes 1 and they keep running in the background, each holding roughly 60–170 MB, so the more sessions you open, the more they pile up. One GitHub issue reports sub-agent processes that were never cleaned up accumulating 30 GB (#20369). Long-running or idle sessions also grow on their own: another issue reports about 15 GB per session after 18 hours idle (#18859). Codex CLI has a similar background-process leak (#7932). As of January 2026, when this article was published, these issues were still open.

How do I quickly find and clean up leftover Claude Code orphan processes in one go?

Use ps to find claude processes with no controlling terminal (a TTY of ??). ps aux | grep '[c]laude' | awk '$7 == "??" {print $2}' | wc -l returns how many there are; replace the trailing wc -l with xargs kill -9 to kill them all at once. A ?? TTY only means the process has no terminal, not that it’s orphaned, so a session still working in the background would be killed too; check before you run it. The safer option is the open-source ccclean.sh script (GitHub: YuancFeng/claude-code-cleanup). It only matches processes named exactly claude, skips anything running for less than 5 minutes, lists the candidates and asks you to confirm twice, then sends SIGTERM before SIGKILL. Claude Code users can also install the skill from the repo and run /ccclean.

In day-to-day use, how do I keep long Claude Code sessions from bloating the context and leaking resources?

Don’t let any single session run indefinitely. Split work by task: when a task is done, run /clear to reset the context or /exit and start fresh, and restart roughly every 30–45 minutes of continuous use. Don’t leave sessions sitting idle, and quit with /exit rather than closing the terminal window. If you’re worried that /clear or a restart will lose project context, put long-lived knowledge in CLAUDE.md or let Auto Memory record it: Auto Memory keeps project conventions and debugging notes in MEMORY.md, and Claude Code loads its first 200 lines at the start of every new session. As a safety net, add a launchd job that cleans up orphaned processes every hour.