Install Claude Code on Any Computer (and Fix Every Install Error)

Cause: The installer put claude in ~/.local/bin, which is not on your PATH yet, or you have not opened a new terminal since installing.

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrcsource ~/.zshrcclaude --version

On bash on Linux, use ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.zshrc. On bash on macOS, use ~/.bash_profile. Opening a new terminal also reloads PATH.

Cause: The Windows PATH was not refreshed in this terminal, or %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin is not on your user PATH.

$env:PATH -split ';' | Select-String '\.local\bin'$currentPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', 'User')[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', "$currentPath;$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin", 'User')

Run these in PowerShell: the first command checks PATH, the other two add the folder. Then restart your terminal and run claude --version. In CMD, add %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin to your user PATH in System Settings, Environment Variables.

Cause: The install URL returned an HTML page (a block, a captive portal, a proxy error page, a 403 or a region restriction) and the shell tried to run it.

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | head -c 200

If the output is an HTML page (its first line is a DOCTYPE tag) rather than a shell script, you are not getting the script. Try another network, switch off the VPN or proxy, or use the Homebrew (brew install --cask claude-code) or WinGet (winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode) method instead.

Cause: Bash did not receive the complete install script. Exit code 56 means the download was interrupted; code 23 means curl could not write to the pipe, usually because Bash exited early.

curl -sI https://downloads.claude.ai/claude-code-releases/latestcurl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

The first command checks that you can reach the download server (a first line of HTTP/2 200 is good). If you can, the failure was probably intermittent, so run the install again. Otherwise try another network or an alternative install method.

Cause: A corporate proxy or antivirus is intercepting HTTPS with its own certificate that your system does not trust, or your system certificates are out of date.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ca-certificatescurl --cacert /path/to/corporate-ca.pem -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bashexport NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/path/to/corporate-ca.pem

First command: Ubuntu and Debian CA update. Second: install through a proxy that inspects TLS, using the CA file from IT. Third: make Claude Code itself trust that CA once installed. On Windows, enable TLS 1.2 in PowerShell or install with WinGet.

Cause: The installer could not reach the download server, usually because downloads.claude.ai is blocked by a proxy or firewall.

curl -sI https://downloads.claude.ai/claude-code-releases/latestexport HTTPS_PROXY=http://your-proxy:portcurl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

The first command should print HTTP/2 200 on its first line. Replace the proxy address with your own and set HTTP_PROXY as well. A 403 usually means a network filter or an unsupported region.

Cause: You ran the CMD install command in Windows PowerShell. The PowerShell prompt starts with PS C:\.

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

In PowerShell use the command above. The && form is for CMD.

Cause: You ran the PowerShell command in CMD. irm and iex only exist in PowerShell.

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

Or open PowerShell (a prompt that starts with PS C:\) and run irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex.

Cause: The installer could not write to %USERPROFILE%\.claude\downloads. A previous install attempt is still running, or antivirus is scanning a half-downloaded binary there.

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\downloads"irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Close other PowerShell windows running the installer, wait for antivirus scans to finish, then run both commands in PowerShell.

Cause: A small server or container ran out of memory and the Linux out-of-memory killer stopped the installer (exit code 137). The install needs roughly 512 MB of free memory.

free -hsudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfilesudo chmod 600 /swapfilesudo mkswap /swapfilesudo swapon /swapfilecurl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Add swap, then run the installer again. Running Claude Code needs more than installing it: the system requirements say 4 GB of RAM or more.

Cause: During install, your organisation's server-managed settings need an approval dialog, and a dialog needs a terminal. When the installer runs from a pipe (curl ... | bash) there is none. Versions before 2.1.246 try to show the dialog during install.

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bashclaude --version

Run the installer again: it installs the latest release, which skips the dialog and shows it in your next interactive session instead. The exception is organisations that force a fail-closed settings refresh at startup.

Cause: The native binary uses CPU instructions your processor does not have. Either the installer downloaded the wrong architecture (for example x86 on an ARM server) or the CPU lacks AVX (roughly pre-2013 chips, or a VM that hides AVX from the guest).

uname -mgrep -m1 -ow avx /proc/cpuinfo

If uname -m does not match the binary you got, report it on GitHub. An empty result from the second command means no AVX. There is no native-binary workaround, and alternative install methods download the same binary; the docs track it in GitHub issue 50384.

Cause: The binary is incompatible with your macOS version or hardware. Claude Code requires macOS 13.0 or later.

sw_vers -productVersion

If the version is below 13.0, update macOS. Homebrew and other install methods download the same binary, so they will not fix this.

Cause: The distribution is running under WSL 1 and hits a known native-binary regression (GitHub issue 38788): WSL 1's loader cannot handle the binary's program headers.

wsl -l -vwsl --set-version <DistroName> 2

Run these in PowerShell and replace <DistroName> with the name the first command lists, for example Ubuntu. To stay on WSL 1, the docs show a shell function for ~/.bashrc that starts the binary through /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2.

Cause: The global npm folder (or the install folder) is not writable by your user. Do not fix this with sudo.

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

The native installer needs no npm permissions. If a native install fails on permissions, check that ~/.local/bin and ~/.claude are writable. Never run sudo npm install -g.

Cause: The npm package asks for Node.js 22 or later. On an older Node.js, npm prints an EBADENGINE warning but the install still completes and claude still runs, because the package downloads a native binary that does not use your Node.js at runtime. Older Claude Code releases (the era of GitHub issue 8410) did require Node 18.

node --versioncurl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

The native installer needs no Node.js at all. If you use npm, upgrade Node to 22 or newer to silence the warning.

Cause: To update on Windows, Claude Code renames the existing claude.exe to a backup and moves the new version in. If that second step fails (often antivirus), claude.exe is left missing and the backup is named claude.exe.old.<timestamp>.

Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin\claude.exe.old.*" | Sort-Object Name | Select-Object -Last 1 | Rename-Item -NewName claude.execlaude --versionirm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Run in PowerShell. Rename the newest backup back to claude.exe. If there is no backup, or claude still fails, run the last command to reinstall. Check your antivirus quarantine list too. WinGet (winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode) is an alternative.

Cause: The login request cannot reach the Anthropic auth servers: DNS, VPN, proxy, IPv6 or firewall. A user report in GitHub issue 33238 found auth.anthropic.com failing to resolve.

nslookup auth.anthropic.comclaude auth login

Try a different network or switch off the VPN. If the browser cannot open or reach Claude Code, press c at the login prompt to copy the login URL and open it in a browser on your own machine, then paste the code back. On WSL2, SSH and containers this paste-the-code flow is the normal path.

Cause: The login code expired or was truncated when you copied it, often because the terminal wrapped the line.

claude auth login

Press Enter at the prompt to retry and finish the login quickly after the browser opens. Type c to copy the full login URL if the browser does not open. In a remote or SSH session, open the URL in your local browser.

Cause: The login worked but the request was refused: an inactive Pro or Max subscription, a Console account without the Claude Code or Developer role, or a proxy interfering with API requests.

Pro and Max users: check your subscription is active at claude.ai/settings. Console users: ask an admin to give you the Claude Code or Developer role (Console, Settings, Members). Behind a proxy, see the network configuration docs.

Cause: Your Claude Enterprise organisation set your role to Custom, and none of the custom roles assigned to your groups grants Claude Code. Nothing you change in Claude Code fixes this.

claude

Ask an Owner of your Claude organisation to assign a custom role that grants Claude Code to one of your groups, or to change your role from Custom to a standard role such as User. Then run claude and log in again. Separately, the free claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code: you need Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or a Console account.

Cause: An old ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your shell profile overrides your subscription login, so you see "This organization has been disabled" despite an active plan. In non-interactive mode (-p) the key is always used when present.

echo "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY:+set}"unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEYclaude

If the first command prints set, remove the variable and delete any export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY line from ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile. Run /status inside Claude Code to confirm which login is active. A separate case, GitHub issue 5244, was a macOS login that was not persisted.

Cause: Your saved login expired or was revoked. On macOS it can also mean the login Keychain is locked or out of sync, so Claude Code could not save the login.

claude doctorsecurity unlock-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db

Run /login inside Claude Code. If it keeps happening, check that your system clock is correct. On macOS, claude doctor warns when the Keychain is not writable: unlock it with the second command, then /logout and /login.

Cause: WSL hands Windows clipboard images to Linux in an old BMP format, and your terminal may grab Ctrl+V for text.

claude

Use Alt+V to paste an image on Windows and WSL (Ctrl+V is also bound on WSL). If the clipboard route still fails, save the image as a PNG and give Claude Code its file path or drag the file into the terminal.

Cause: On Alpine and other musl distributions the minimal image lacks the C++ runtime Claude Code needs. (On a glibc system, the cause can instead be a musl binary installed by mistake.)

apk add bash curl libgcc libstdc++ ripgrepldd --version 2>&1 | head -1

Install the packages, then set USE_BUILTIN_RIPGREP to 0 in the env block of ~/.claude/settings.json so it uses the system ripgrep. The second command shows whether you are on glibc or musl. If apk cannot find ripgrep, add the Alpine community repository.