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

  • July 13, 2026
  • 8 replies
  • 169 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.

Best answer by Celine_

Hi everyone, Céline from Figma here, stepping in for ​@Celyn_L 

Thanks for your patience while our team investigated this. The issue should now be resolved. Could you please refresh your desktop app tabs and let us know if you're still experiencing the issue? Thank you!

    8 replies

    Jamess
    • Jamess
    • July 13, 2026

    While Figma is running it launches hundreds of  claude code ( 2.1.207 e.g Users/name/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.207) binaries, isn’t this a gratuitous breach of trust, whats it doing with them? Is it costing me Claude tokens? Completely drags my computer to a halt choking kernel_task

    Figma shouldn’t have the rights to mess around with other applications on my system especially ones that can cost me money.

    [Moderator note: This post was merged from "Figma launching 412 Claude Code (2.1.207) processes when it's running" into "Figma is spawning hundreds of Claude CLI processes and freezing my computer”.] on 16 Jul 2026.

      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 🙏

        Jamess
        • Jamess
        • July 15, 2026

        Literally grinds my machine to a halt as figma is open, you might  want to at least respond to me because this software is hanging by a thread in our company, my CEO hates us using it and just wants us using claude and cursor directly instead of working in Figma and I'm the admin of the Figma team so if I can’t even use it because of this the whole team plan is gonna be gone.

        I never gave your app the right to screw with my claude code install

        [Moderator note: This post was merged from "Figma launching 412 Claude Code (2.1.207) processes when it's running" into "Figma is spawning hundreds of Claude CLI processes and freezing my computer”.] on 16 Jul 2026.

          Celyn_L
          Figmate
          • Celyn_L
          • Figmate
          • July 16, 2026

          Hi ​@Jamess, thanks for flagging this. I understand that you're seeing a large number of Claude Code processes when Figma is running and that this is affecting your workflow.

          Just a heads up, I've merged your post into this thread to help keep all similar reports in one place.

          I've also shared your report, along with the additional details and screenshot you've provided, with our engineering team for visibility so they can investigate further.

          I appreciate you taking the time to report this. I'll share any updates here as soon as I have more information. Thanks for your patience in the meantime 🙏

          Celine_
          Figmate
          • Celine_
          • Community Support
          • Answer
          • July 16, 2026

          Hi everyone, Céline from Figma here, stepping in for ​@Celyn_L 

          Thanks for your patience while our team investigated this. The issue should now be resolved. Could you please refresh your desktop app tabs and let us know if you're still experiencing the issue? Thank you!

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