[BUG] [URGENT!!!] Claude Code is hanging / freezing / stuck on heaps of prompts for 5-20minutes or more.

[nullbio]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Ever since the release of Opus 4.6 at least, and maybe slightly before (I can't remember exactly when it started), Claude gets stuck "thinking" for ~5-20 minutes, and sometimes even longer. Token usage does not go up during this time, and packet inspection shows it hanging on waiting for SSE events from Anthropic end for the given prompt.

Sometimes this can be fixed by sending a follow up prompt (doesn't matter what it contains), that kicks it back into action and allows the "thinking" prompt to start flowing again. Other times that doesn't work either.

This isn't Claude doing things behind the scenes, it's literally just stuck / blocking, and doing nothing at all.

In most cases, EVENTUALLY, it seems to unfreeze itself, somehow. But it tends to take over 5 minutes, sometimes beyond 20 mins.

Theres a lot of other people complaining of similar problems, and I'm sure it is affecting a very large amount of users, but I haven't seen any evidence to see Anthropic is aware of it.

What Should Happen?

Not freeze.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

I'm not sure how to trigger it deterministically.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.38

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other Linux

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

I'm using WSL2 Ubuntu through Windows terminal.

I've tried deleting my entire Claude Code installation and starting with completely fresh config with no MCPs, skills, etc. Still same problem.

I'm not using a VPN or anything. It was working fine until either the release of Opus 4.6, or just prior to it. That's when I first started having this problem.

I'm using High thinking mode (but again, this is NOT stuck on actually thinking, token and tool usage is not going up at all).

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] Claude Code hangs indefinitely when API streaming connection stalls (no read timeout) #25979
2. Claude Code freezes: static spinner, unresponsive input, ignores SIGTERM #20572
3. Sessions hang indefinitely in Metamorphosing state with 0 tokens #26157

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[queglay]

This is happening right now even without 4.6. Requests are just hanging.

[fkxxyz]

I encountered the same issue. I noticed that it gets stuck when executing any Bash tool call.
I found a related discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1qm1fb5/claude_code_stuck_for_minutes_before_asking_for/
Setting the ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL environment variable to a valid Haiku model resolved the problem for me.

[nullbio]

I encountered the same issue. I noticed that it gets stuck when executing any Bash tool call. I found a related discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1qm1fb5/claude_code_stuck_for_minutes_before_asking_for/ Setting the ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL environment variable to a valid Haiku model resolved the problem for me.

What did you set it to? How do I know what a valid Haiku model is? I'm just using the max subscription. Shouldn't that be all Haiku models?

[fkxxyz]

I encountered the same issue. I noticed that it gets stuck when executing any Bash tool call. I found a related discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1qm1fb5/claude_code_stuck_for_minutes_before_asking_for/ Setting the ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL environment variable to a valid Haiku model resolved the problem for me.

What did you set it to? How do I know what a valid Haiku model is? I'm just using the max subscription. Shouldn't that be all Haiku models?

I just set it to ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5.
In my case I'm not on a Claude subscription — I'm using a custom model with a third-party LLM API with ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL set, so there's no default Haiku model, which caused the hang.
If you're on an official Claude plan, I think it should automatically pick the latest Haiku version unless there's a bug.
Not sure if the missing Haiku model is what's causing your issue though, just sharing what worked for me!

[nullbio]

I encountered the same issue. I noticed that it gets stuck when executing any Bash tool call. I found a related discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1qm1fb5/claude_code_stuck_for_minutes_before_asking_for/ Setting the ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL environment variable to a valid Haiku model resolved the problem for me.

What did you set it to? How do I know what a valid Haiku model is? I'm just using the max subscription. Shouldn't that be all Haiku models?

I just set it to ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5. In my case I'm not on a Claude subscription — I'm using a custom model with a third-party LLM API with ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL set, so there's no default Haiku model, which caused the hang. If you're on an official Claude plan, I think it should automatically pick the latest Haiku version unless there's a bug. Not sure if the missing Haiku model is what's causing your issue though, just sharing what worked for me!

Okay, I'll give it a go regardless. It's intermittent, so who knows, but fingers crossed, thank you.

[nullbio]

I encountered the same issue. I noticed that it gets stuck when executing any Bash tool call. I found a related discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1qm1fb5/claude_code_stuck_for_minutes_before_asking_for/ Setting the ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL environment variable to a valid Haiku model resolved the problem for me.

What did you set it to? How do I know what a valid Haiku model is? I'm just using the max subscription. Shouldn't that be all Haiku models?

I just set it to ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5. In my case I'm not on a Claude subscription — I'm using a custom model with a third-party LLM API with ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL set, so there's no default Haiku model, which caused the hang. If you're on an official Claude plan, I think it should automatically pick the latest Haiku version unless there's a bug. Not sure if the missing Haiku model is what's causing your issue though, just sharing what worked for me!

No luck unfortunately.

Crazy that Anthropic doesn't seem to care about this. They're happy to pump out useless features but can't be bothered to actually make the service usable. I'm sure I'm not the only one getting absolutely fed up with their radio silence.

[catherinewu]

Hi - Thank you for reporting this. Our team is actively investigating this and will update this thread when we know more.

[kijun]

happens about 50% of time kicking up things from mobile, almost impossible to do consistent work -- thank you for taking a look

[khwerhahn]

Confirming the same behavior on macOS (Apple Silicon, 16 GB RAM), Claude Code v2.1.52, Max subscription, Opus 4.6.

Symptom: Tool calls (Bash, Read, Edit) complete but Claude hangs indefinitely — the spinner keeps spinning, no tokens are consumed, and no progress is made. Pressing Escape and re-prompting immediately unsticks it and the same tool call executes fine on retry. Happens intermittently, roughly 1 in 5 tool calls.

Relevant context — memory pressure may be a factor:
I typically run 3-4 concurrent Claude Code sessions. Each session spawns its own set of MCP servers (Docker gateway, excalidraw, etc.). Before trimming, I had duplicate MCP servers across global config (~/.claude.json) and per-project configs (.mcp.json), resulting in 14+ MCP server processes consuming ~570 MB. System was at 85% memory usage, 65% memory pressure, 3.9 GB swap on 16 GB.

After deduplicating MCP servers (removing ~400 MB of redundant npx-based processes), the hangs seem less frequent but still occur. This suggests memory pressure may exacerbate the issue but isn't the root cause — consistent with the SSE streaming stall theory others have reported.

Single Max subscription, no custom API setup.