Error reference changederrors
Nearest release: v2.1.296, published 4 hours before upstream edited the page. Shown because the two are within 24 hours of each other. Nothing here says the release caused the edit.
Upstream edited this page at 9 Oct 2026 20:59 UTC, give or take a minute or two: the time comes from Anthropic’s own sitemap rather than from a commit. This site recorded the change at 9 Oct 2026 21:07 UTC.
Upstream edited
Recorded here
Lines+3added
Lines−44removed
From line
183
where the diff opens
First seen
14 Aug 2026
this site's first read of the page
Recorded edits157to this page, all time
## Installation errors ### Installation was killed before it could finish ### The connection dropped while downloading the update
The whole hunk
from line 183, old and new numbered
/
This page is larger than the 256 KiB this site keeps, so one side of the diff below stops where the stored text does.
from line 183
183183| `<model> has safety measures that flagged this message for a cybersecurity topic` | [Request errors](#safety-measures-flagged-a-cybersecurity-topic) |
184184| `` Details: `[reasoning_extraction]` `` | [Request errors](#safeguards-flagged-a-request-for-claudes-reasoning) |
185185| `API Error: Output blocked by content filtering policy` | [Request errors](#output-blocked-by-content-filtering-policy) |
186| `Installation was killed before it could finish (exit code 137)` | [Installation errors](#installation-was-killed-before-it-could-finish) |
187| `The connection dropped while downloading the update` | [Installation errors](#the-connection-dropped-while-downloading-the-update) |
188| `Download timed out: exceeded the total deadline` | [Installation errors](#the-connection-dropped-while-downloading-the-update) |
186| `Installation was killed before it could finish (exit code 137)` | [Troubleshoot installation and login](/docs/en/troubleshoot-install#installation-was-killed-before-it-could-finish) |
187| `The connection dropped while downloading the update` | [Troubleshoot installation and login](/docs/en/troubleshoot-install#the-connection-dropped-while-downloading-the-update) |
188| `Download timed out: exceeded the total deadline` | [Troubleshoot installation and login](/docs/en/troubleshoot-install#the-connection-dropped-while-downloading-the-update) |
189189| `--bg and --print conflict` | [Command-line errors](#conflict-between-bg-and-print) |
190190| `Error: Cannot use both --append-subagent-system-prompt and --append-subagent-system-prompt-file. Please use only one.` | [Command-line errors](#conflict-between-a-system-prompt-flag-and-its-file-form) |
191191| `Cloud sessions cannot be created from a --restricted session` | [Command-line errors](#cloud-sessions-cannot-be-created-from-a-restricted-session) |
from line 2739
27392739* Rephrase your last message or take a different approach
27402740* To step back to a checkpoint before the turn that triggered the block, press Esc twice or run `/rewind`. See [Checkpointing](/docs/en/checkpointing)
27412741
2742## Installation errors
2742## Command-line errors
27432743
2744These errors appear while installing or updating Claude Code, from the [install script](/docs/en/setup#install-claude-code), `claude install`, or `claude update`. For `command not found`, PATH, permission, and TLS problems during setup, see [Troubleshoot installation and login](/docs/en/troubleshoot-install).
2744These errors come from the `claude` command line and its subcommands, from a command name you submit at the prompt, and from commands such as `/security-review` that gather context by running shell commands before their prompt runs. They also come from `/tui`, which relaunches the CLI.
27452745
2746### Installation was killed before it could finish
2746<h3 id="conflict-between-bg-and-print">
2747 Conflict between `--bg` and `--print`
2748</h3>
27472749
2748The install script reports when the `claude install` step is terminated by a signal. On Linux, exit code 137 means the process received SIGKILL, and on a low-memory host that's usually the kernel out-of-memory (OOM) killer. The script prints this explanation and exits with code 137:
2750This message requires Claude Code v2.1.198 or later. You combined `--bg` with `-p` or `--print` in the same `claude` invocation. `--bg` starts a [background session](/docs/en/agent-view#from-your-shell) that you later attach to with `claude agents`, while `--print` runs [non-interactively](/docs/en/headless) and never starts the interactive session that `claude agents` attaches to. Before v2.1.198 this combination silently created a background job that could never be attached to.
27492751
27502752```text theme={null}
2751Installation was killed before it could finish (exit code 137). This usually means the system ran out of memory.
2752Claude Code needs roughly 512MB of free memory to install. Free up memory, then run this script again.
2753--bg and --print conflict: --print never starts the interactive session that `claude agents` attaches to, so the job would be unattachable. The prompt is the positional — drop --print: `claude --bg '<task>'`.
27532754```
27542755
2755For any other fatal signal, and for exit code 137 on macOS, the script prints `Installation was killed before it could finish (exit code <N>)` with the actual exit code and omits the out-of-memory explanation. The message comes from the install script macOS and Linux use, which also covers installs inside WSL; the native Windows install scripts never print it. Before v2.1.200, the script exited with only the shell's bare `Killed` line.
2756
27572756**What to do:**
27582757
2759* Stop other processes to free memory, then rerun the installer
2760* Add swap space or move to a larger instance. See [Install killed on low-memory Linux servers](/docs/en/troubleshoot-install#install-killed-on-low-memory-linux-servers) for the swap-file commands.
2758* Drop `-p` or `--print`. `--bg` takes the prompt as its positional argument, so `claude --bg "<task>"` is the complete command. See [Dispatch new agents from your shell](/docs/en/agent-view#from-your-shell).
2759* To run the prompt non-interactively and print the result instead of creating a background session, drop `--bg` and run `claude -p "<task>"`
27612760
2762### The connection dropped while downloading the update
2761<h3 id="conflict-between-a-system-prompt-flag-and-its-file-form">
2762 Conflict between a system prompt flag and its file form
2763</h3>
27632764
2764The connection to the download server closed while `claude install` or `claude update` was fetching the Claude Code binary, and the retries didn't recover. Claude Code retries the download when the connection drops, the transfer stalls, or the downloaded file fails its checksum, up to three attempts in total. A completed HTTP error, such as a 404, isn't retried because the server already answered. Before v2.1.202, a single dropped connection failed the download immediately with the bare error `aborted` instead of retrying.
2765You passed [`--append-subagent-system-prompt`](/docs/en/cli-reference#cli-flags) together with `--append-subagent-system-prompt-file` in one `claude` invocation, so `claude` exits with code 1 instead of starting the session:
27652766
27662767```text theme={null}
2767The connection dropped while downloading the update (attempt 3/3: aborted). Check your network — proxies sometimes cut off large downloads.
2768Error: Cannot use both --append-subagent-system-prompt and --append-subagent-system-prompt-file. Please use only one.
27682769```
27692770
2770The text in parentheses names which attempt failed and the underlying network error. `claude update` precedes the message with `Error: Failed to install native update` on stderr.
2771Before v2.1.283, `claude` exited the same way when you passed `--system-prompt` with `--system-prompt-file`, or `--append-system-prompt` with `--append-system-prompt-file`, because those pairs conflicted instead of [combining](/docs/en/cli-reference#system-prompt-flags). On those versions the message names the pair you combined.
27712772
2772A download that stays connected but doesn't finish within 10 minutes fails with `Download timed out: exceeded the total deadline` instead. Claude Code doesn't retry a timed-out download, because a connection too slow to finish inside the deadline won't finish on an immediate retry either. The steps below apply to both messages.
2773**What to do:**
27732774
2774A proxy or gateway can close a long transfer before it finishes, and the Claude Code binary is a large download.
2775* Keep one form of the flag and drop the other. To combine a fixed prompt file with per-run text, merge the text into the file before launching instead of passing both flags
27752776
2776**What to do:**
2777<h3 id="invalid-agents-configuration">
2778 Invalid `--agents` configuration
2779</h3>
27772780
2778* Run `claude update` again. On an otherwise healthy network, the download usually succeeds on the next run. For the timed-out message, run it again from a faster or less throttled network.
2779* If your network requires a proxy, set `HTTPS_PROXY` before running the installer or `claude update`. See [Check network connectivity](/docs/en/troubleshoot-install#check-network-connectivity).
2780* If a corporate proxy keeps closing the transfer, ask your network team to allow the full download from `downloads.claude.ai`. See [Network access requirements](/docs/en/network-config#network-access-requirements).
2781* Run `claude doctor` from your shell for installation diagnostics
2781The value you passed to `--agents` is invalid, so `claude` exits with code 1 instead of starting the session. When you pass `--safe-mode` or set [`CLAUDE_CODE_SAFE_MODE`](/docs/en/env-vars#variables), Claude Code ignores `--agents` entirely. With `--resume` or `--continue`, an inline JSON value isn't checked and the session starts; a value read from a file is checked on every launch. Before v2.1.242, Claude Code started the session anyway.
27822782
2783## Command-line errors
2783```text theme={null}
2784Error: Invalid --agents configuration:
2785<what failed>
2786```
27842787
2785These errors come from the `claude` command line and its subcommands, from a command name you submit at the prompt, and from commands such as `/security-review`
2788What follows the first line depends on how the value failed. Claude Code runs these checks in order and stops at the first one that fails. If your value has two kinds of problem, you see the second only after you fix the first:
2789
27901. When the value begins with `{` but doesn't parse as JSON, or the contents of an `--agents` file don't parse, Claude Code prints one `invalid JSON:` line carrying the JSON parser's own message
27912. When it parses but an agent definition doesn't match the schema for [CLI-defined subagents](/docs/en/sub-agents#choose-the-subagent-scope), Claude Code prints one line per problem
27923. When an agent name st
No line in this hunk matches that.