Installation fails with lock contention: 'another process is currently installing Claude'

[pinkwerks]

Description

The Claude Code installation in GitHub Actions fails intermittently with a lock contention error, even when there's no obvious concurrent installation happening.

Error Message

Installation attempt 1...
Setting up Claude Code...
[~2 minute hang]
Installation failed, retrying...

Installation attempt 2...
Setting up Claude Code...
✘ Installation failed

Could not install - another process is currently installing Claude. Please try
again in a moment.

Try running with --force to override checks

Environment

• GitHub-hosted runner (ubuntu-latest)
• Action version: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
• Claude Code version: 2.0.74

Analysis

The first installation attempt appears to hang for ~2 minutes before failing, then subsequent retry attempts hit the lock contention error. This suggests:

1. The first attempt may leave a stale lock file when it times out/fails
2. GitHub Actions runners are shared infrastructure, so lock files in global paths can persist across jobs
3. The retry logic doesn't account for self-inflicted lock contention from the previous failed attempt

Suggested Fixes

1. Use --force flag on retry attempts after the first failure
2. Clean up lock files before installation attempts
3. Use a job-specific or unique installation path to avoid cross-job conflicts
4. Add better lock file timeout/cleanup logic