[Claude Desktop] App crash-loops on relaunch after quitting during onboarding

[keefey]

Note: This is a Claude Desktop issue, not Claude Code. Filing here as there is no public issue tracker for Claude Desktop.

Description

Fresh install of Claude Desktop on macOS. After starting onboarding and quitting the app, it fails to relaunch — crash-looping on every subsequent launch attempt.

Environment

• App version: 1.1.3189
• Platform: macOS arm64 (Darwin 25.2.0, Apple M4 Pro)
• Node version: 24.13.0

Error

The app crashes immediately on startup with:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'value')
    at formatProperty (node:internal/util/inspect:2280:12)
    at formatRaw (node:internal/util/inspect:1176:9)
    at formatValue (node:internal/util/inspect:932:10)
    at formatProperty (node:internal/util/inspect:2283:11)
    at formatRaw (node:internal/util/inspect:1176:9)
    at formatValue (node:internal/util/inspect:932:10)
    at inspect (node:internal/util/inspect:409:10)
    at formatWithOptionsInternal (node:internal/util/inspect:2582:25)
    at Object.format (node:internal/util/inspect:2502:10)
    at i._splat (/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/.vite/build/index.js:65:5640)

The crash occurs in the winston _splat format transform when util.inspect encounters an object with a property whose descriptor has an undefined value.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Fresh install Claude Desktop on macOS
2. Launch the app — onboarding begins
3. Quit the app during onboarding
4. Relaunch the app — crash loop

Workaround

The only fix was a full reset of all app data:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/*
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/com.anthropic.claudefordesktop.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/Claude/*

Clearing only Local Storage/Session Storage/Cookies was not sufficient — the full wipe was required.

Impact

This is a fatal issue for new users. The app becomes completely unusable after a routine quit during onboarding, with no way to recover without manually deleting app data from the terminal. There is no UI-based recovery path.

[tonydavidcray]

Came here due to same issue. Using rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/ resolved it (macOS 26.2)

[corytitus]

Subscribing — this also affects remote MCP servers with OAuth (e.g. StreamableHTTP transport). The util.inspect crash in Node 24.13.0 is triggered when Claude Desktop's Winston logger tries to format an error object during the OAuth connection flow. The upstream fix is nodejs/node#61661 (merged, awaiting 24.13.1 release).