【Claude Code】 How to work around Auto-update failed

When npm-installed Claude Code shows Auto-update failed in the lower right, switch to the official installer

If you install Claude Code with npm, an update error shows up in the lower right quite often.

Auto-update failed · Try claude doctor or npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Screen showing Auto-update failed in the lower right of Claude Code

Figure: Installed via npm. It starts, but auto-update failure shows in the lower right.

The workaround is in the official GitHub issue.

Install with the official installer

Install with the following command instead of npm.

Change it to zsh or whatever matches the shell you use.

curl -fsSL http://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Right after installing Claude Code with the official installer

Figure: It finishes, but you get a warning if ~/.local/bin is not on PATH.

It installs as ~/.local/bin/claude.

Confirm that ~/.local/bin is on PATH.

Screen after putting it on PATH, with claude started

Figure: After putting it on PATH. claude starts.

With a global npm install, auto-update fails easily.

Switch to the official installer and auto-update works.

The install path is ~/.local/bin/claude.

Put ~/.local/bin on PATH.