How to Update Claude Code (and the Native Installer)

Published 22-10-2026. Last verified against Anthropic's setup documentation and the GitHub releases page on 22-10-2026. The newest release that day was v2.1.308. Reviewed monthly because Claude Code ships a new version almost every day.

Quick answer

Run claude update. It applies a pending update right away, and native installations also update themselves in the background. This page is for a developer or tech lead who keeps Claude Code on several laptops or CI runners and needs to know which install method updates itself, which one does not and how to stop a bad release from reaching the team. Our advice: use the native installer, leave auto-updates on for yourself, and pin the version in CI and on shared machines. We ran none of these commands ourselves, so every statement below is vendor-documented and marked as not tested by us.

How we checked the information in this article

Our method is to read the vendor documentation, write down what it says with the date and mark anything we did not run. On 22-10-2026 we read Anthropic's setup page in full and the GitHub releases page for the anthropics/claude-code repository. Our gate for this page was an execution test: each update path run on a clean machine, with the version reported before and after. We ran no test, so the gate rejected three things. We did not repeat the claim that npm is deprecated, because the setup page does not say so. We left out version numbers from third-party release roundups, because we could not match them to the releases page. And we left out one guide's count of releases per week, because it is a vendor blog's own figure and we could not verify it.

How do you update Claude Code?

It depends on how you installed it. Anthropic's setup page says native installations update automatically in the background: Claude Code checks on startup and periodically while running, installs the update in the background and uses it the next time you start. Homebrew, WinGet, apt, dnf and apk installations do not update themselves by default. The table is from that page, and we did not run any row.

For npm, Anthropic says to avoid npm update -g, which respects the semver range from the original install and may not move you to the newest release. When claude update works, it reports Successfully updated from <old version> to version <new version>, or Claude Code is up to date (<version>) when there is nothing to do.

If you would rather not run the command yourself on Homebrew or WinGet, set CLAUDE_CODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER_AUTO_UPDATE to 1, and Claude Code runs the upgrade in the background and shows a restart prompt. We would not switch it on for a shared build machine. Updates there should be a decision, not a side effect. If you work in an editor, our guide to using Claude Code in VS Code covers what updates there, and the Windows details are in our Claude Code on Windows guide.

Is the npm install deprecated?

We could not confirm it. The setup page we read on 22-10-2026 labels the native install "Recommended" and lists npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code under advanced installation options without a deprecation notice. The same page says the npm package needs Node.js 22 or later and installs the same native binary as the standalone installer, through a per-platform optional dependency. We did not open the npm package page, so we cannot say whether it carries a notice of its own. Our reading is that native is where Anthropic wants new installs to go, and that npm still works. If your team installs through npm today, the practical cost is that you update by hand, so write the command into your runbook. The install itself, per operating system and shell, is covered in our Claude Code terminal setup guide.

How do you check your version?

Run claude --version. A working installation prints a version number such as 2.1.211 (Claude Code), which is the example on the setup page. For more, run claude doctor. Anthropic describes it as a read-only check that prints installation and settings diagnostics without starting a session, including install health, settings-file errors, the state of auto-updates and the result of the last update attempt Claude Code recorded.

After a failed update, claude doctor is the first stop. If your skills stopped loading after an update, our guide to Claude Code skills not working walks through the usual causes, and Env Doctor is free and, per its listing, checks runtime versions, dependencies and environment variables when a project will not start. Updating Claude Code itself is a different job from updating your skills, which we cover in how to update Claude Code skills.

Should you use the stable or the latest channel?

Anthropic offers two release channels. latest is the default and delivers new features as soon as they ship. stable serves a version that is typically about one week old and skips releases with major regressions. You choose with /config under Auto-update channel, or in settings.json:

{
  "autoUpdatesChannel": "stable"
}

Homebrew picks the channel by cask name instead: claude-code tracks stable and claude-code@latest tracks latest. The Linux repositories do the same by repository. One caveat from the setup page: a newly launched model can require a Claude Code version newer than the stable channel serves, so you may need to move to latest to use it.

We send almost every team lead to stable for shared machines and keep latest for the one person whose job is to find problems early. The price is a delay of about a week on new features, and the gain is that a regression has a week to be noticed by someone else. Our broader Claude Code command reference lists the commands you will use around this, including /config.

How do you pin a version or stop auto-updates?

There are four controls, all from the setup page.

• Install a specific version. The native installer takes a version number or a channel. On macOS, Linux and WSL, curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash -s 2.1.89 installs 2.1.89, and claude --version then prints it. PowerShell and CMD have their own variants on the same page.

• Set a floor. The minimumVersion setting makes background updates and claude update refuse any version below the value, for example "minimumVersion": "2.1.100". It only constrains updates upward, so it does not cap a version.

• Stop background checks. Set DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER to "1" in the env block of settings.json. It stops only the background check, and claude update and claude install still work.

• Block every update path. Set DISABLE_UPDATES, which also blocks manual updates. Anthropic suggests it when you distribute Claude Code through your own channels.

Organizations can also enforce requiredMinimumVersion and requiredMaximumVersion in managed settings, which make Claude Code refuse to start outside a range. We did not test these.

In CI, pin the version and review the pin on a schedule, the same way you pin an action to a tag instead of @main. CI CD Pipeline Validator is free and its listing opens with a workflow file that pins an action to @main and exposes the GITHUB_TOKEN secret, which is the habit to avoid. Our DevOps and cloud skills cover the surrounding pipeline work. If you manage Claude Code on a shared network drive, read the setup page's section on network storage first: it warns that a session reads its executable from disk as it works, and that an in-place npm upgrade deletes the binary other machines may still be running.

How do you go back after a bad release?

Anthropic's setup page does not describe a rollback command, so what follows is our reading of the documented controls, not a tested procedure. Install the last version that worked by passing its number to the installer, as in the example above, then stop the background updater with DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER so it does not move you forward again, and remove the pin once a fixed release is out. If you use minimumVersion, remember that it blocks updates below the floor, so it will not stop you installing an older number by hand.

Before you update a team, read the release notes. Dependency Upgrade Planner costs $5 and, per its listing, produces changelog-aware risk scores, test hints and rollback paths. After an update, Agent Eval Coverage Audit costs $5 and, per its listing, audits your agent's evaluation coverage to find missing release gates, which is the question to ask about any agent you run on top of a tool that changes weekly. For the evaluation side, see our LLM operations skills and testing and debugging skills.

Releases are signed. Anthropic publishes a manifest.json with SHA256 checksums for each platform binary, signed with an Anthropic GPG key, for releases from 2.1.89 onward, and the macOS and Windows binaries carry platform code signatures. If you install through apt, dnf or apk, your package manager checks signatures with the repository key. Teams with a supply-chain policy should read our security skills collection alongside it.

Where do the release notes live?

Anthropic publishes the official Claude Code changelog in its documentation, and the anthropics/claude-code repository publishes releases on GitHub; both are listed under Sources below. Read the entries that touch your setup, such as providers or cloud sessions, before you move a team.

What to do next

Pick one machine and run claude doctor, then decide the channel for your team and write the pin into your CI. Use the agents and orchestration skills collection when you start running agents across many sessions, because that is where we would watch for version drift between machines. We sell skills that load into Claude Code and other agents, and we name four skills from our marketplace above. No vendor paid to be listed here.

For the commands in full, the sources we relied on are Anthropic's advanced setup page and the releases page, both listed under Sources below. We ran none of the commands, and versions, channels and settings change, so check both pages on the day you update.

Written by Samuel Rose, Founder of Agensi.

Sources

• Claude Code docs: advanced setup (install, update and version controls)
• GitHub: anthropics/claude-code releases
• Claude Code docs: official Claude Code changelog