CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_LOCK_WAIT_MS

Updated November 3, 2026 by Alex Sorokoletov

CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_LOCK_WAIT_MS is a Claude Code environment variable: Milliseconds to keep retrying for the config lock when a caller-only lock is in use; defaults to 0. Added in v2.1.318 and still present in v2.1.318. It is not in the official reference.

How to set it

For one session, export it in the shell that starts Claude Code:

export CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_LOCK_WAIT_MS=<value>
claude

To apply it to every session, add it to the env object of a settings file:

// ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_LOCK_WAIT_MS": "<value>"
  }
}

Release notes that mention it

• Claude Code Version Tracker: Undocumented Env Vars, Feature Gates & Models
• claude-code-env-vars-v2-1-318

Related variables

• CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_PROBE: Marks the run as an IDE config probe; when set, the AWS and GCP auth refreshes are skipped.
• CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_WATCH_EVENTS: On Linux, when set, watches config files with filesystem events instead of interval polling; ignored on other platforms.
• CLAUDE_CODE_FLAG_FETCH_WAIT_MS: Milliseconds to wait for the feature-flag fetch to return before giving up; defaults to 3000.
• CLAUDE_CODE_MANAGED_CONFIG_PREFETCH: Turns on a hedged prefetch of the organization's managed settings during startup, so the first managed-settings fetch runs earlier in the launch sequence.
• CLAUDE_CODE_RESTRICT_PERSONAL_CONFIG: Limits what a session's own Claude Code files may do.
• CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR: Custom config directory.
• CLAUDE_SECURESTORAGE_CONFIG_DIR: Sets the directory for secure credential storage, using ~/.claude when set to an empty string and a default location when unset; the value is passed to child processes.
• GIT_CONFIG_COUNT

Frequently asked questions

All variables, searchable: Claude Code environment variables.