Skip to main content
Question

Figma is spawning hundreds of Claude CLI processes and freezing my computer

  • July 13, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 57 views
Taeho Chang

I have Claude Code CLI installed, and whenever I open Figma Desktop my Mac grinds to a halt within about a minute.

Turns out Figma keeps running claude plugin list over and over in the background — I watched the process count jump from 13 to 200+ in under 20 seconds. Each one takes real CPU to start, so my system load goes through the roof and it starts swapping like crazy. Only fix is to force-quit Figma.

Some things I found that might help track it down:
- Not caused by any plugin — checked, none of mine run this command.
- The command and strings like claudeCLI are baked into Figma's own app files, so this looks like your built-in check for installed dev tools (Claude Code, Cursor, etc).
- There's a flag called hasCheckedInstalledMcpClients already set to true in my settings, but Figma keeps re-running the check anyway.
- Tried disabling the related feature flags manually — Figma just reset them back on next launch, so this seems server-controlled on your end.
- Did a full clean reinstall too — bug came right back, so it's not a corrupted local install.

    4 replies

    Celyn_L
    Figmate
    • Celyn_L
    • Figmate
    • July 14, 2026

    Hi ​@Taeho Chang, Celyn from the Figma Community Support team here.

    Thanks for taking the time to investigate this so thoroughly and for sharing everything you've already tried. The details about claude plugin list repeatedly launching processes, along with your findings around hasCheckedInstalledMcpClients and the clean reinstall, are really helpful.

    I've gone ahead and created a support ticket for you so the team can take a closer look. Your case number is #2013683.

    If you're able to, please reply directly to the ticket with any additional information that might help, such as screenshots of Activity Monitor showing the process spike, logs, or any diagnostics you can capture before the system becomes unresponsive.

    The team will investigate this further and reach out via the ticket, so please keep an eye on your inbox. Thanks again for the detailed report 🙏

    imanoic
    • imanoic
    • New Member
    • July 14, 2026

    Hello, 
    same problem here, and it started to happen exactly today. it was so strange i googled it and found this topic.
    it suddenly spiked the cpu Load average to 233(!!) and only left 26 MB unused RAM. On an M3 Pro, a healthy load is roughly 50-60 for heaviest tasks.
    figma started spwaning about 300 “claude plugin list” processes all at once when launched.
    some samples:

    ps -o pid,ppid,command -p 45123,44158,44157,44154,42973
      PID  PPID COMMAND
    42973  7272 claude plugin list
    44154  7272 claude plugin list
    44157  7272 claude plugin list
    44158  7272 claude plugin list

    ps -fp 7272
      UID   PID  PPID   C STIME   TTY           TIME CMD
      501  7272     1   0 12:33PM ??         0:19.16 /Applications/Figma.app/Contents/MacOS/Figma
     

    Rune Madsen
    • Rune Madsen
    • New Member
    • July 14, 2026

    The same is happening for me since yesterday. When I launch Figma, it starts spawning hundreds of Claude processes which instantly kills my computer. I can see some Claude-related message blinking in the right sidebar in Figma, but it disappears. I’m guessing that’s the thing spawning these processes over and over.

    Celyn_L
    Figmate
    • Celyn_L
    • Figmate
    • July 15, 2026

    Hi ​@imanoic and ​@Rune Madsen, thanks for chiming in.

    I understand that you're both running into the same issue, and I appreciate you taking the time to report it.

    I've passed your reports along to our engineering team for visibility, and I'll share any updates here as soon as I have more information 🙏

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement