Claude Code CLI fails to create project log path; ENOENT + lock contention + OOM in multi-agent environment

[jamiequint]

Environment

• Running Claude CLI via claude_agent_sdk subprocess.
• Each agent sets HOME to a per-agent directory (e.g. /home/myapp/{agent-id}).
• Working directory is a workspace path (e.g. /tmp/myapp-agents/{agent-id} or /home/myapp/{agent-id}/{workspace}).
• Multiple concurrent agents/processes on same host.

Observed Behavior

• CLI attempts to open a project log file under:

  $HOME/.claude/projects/{normalized_cwd}/{session_id}.jsonl

• When {normalized_cwd} includes slashified paths like -tmp-myapp-agents-{agent-id}, the CLI does not create the intermediate directory.

• Results in:

  Error opening file .../.claude/projects/-tmp-myapp-agents-{agent-id}/{session}.jsonl
  ENOENT: no such file or directory

• In parallel runs, CLI also logs:

  Failed to save config with lock: Lock file is already being held

• In some cases the process is OOM-killed (exit code -9) shortly after repeated lock and file write attempts.

Expected Behavior

• CLI should ensure the full project log directory exists before opening/append.
• File lock should either block or retry cleanly, not spam errors.
• Concurrent runs shouldn’t corrupt .claude.json or thrash locks.

Minimal Repro

1. Launch two concurrent CLI processes with unique HOME dirs.
2. Set CWD to a path with slashes and hyphens (e.g. /tmp/myapp-agents/{agent-id}).
3. Observe ENOENT on .claude/projects/{normalized_cwd}/{session}.jsonl.

Workaround

• Pre-create $HOME/.claude/{projects}/{normalized_cwd} before launching CLI.
• Or change CLI to write project logs under a single flat directory.