Use it now
Auto-update enforcement docs now clarify idle-wait and restart behavior in detail.
autoUpdaterEnforcementHours now has a long description clarifying its behavior: it has no effect when disableAutoUpdates is set, since the updater never starts. Leaving it blank uses the 72-hour default and waits for at least 10 minutes of machine idle before restarting, whereas setting an explicit value, even 72, restarts once the window elapses regardless of activity. In both cases, restarts still hold off while Claude is mid-task.
Names in the bundleautoUpdaterEnforcementHours
Documented inclaude-docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up autoUpdaterEnforcementHours, on Configuration reference.
| <span id="autoupdaterenforcementhours" />Auto-update enforcement window<br />`autoUpdaterEnforcementHours` | `integer` | MDM + Bootstrap<br />Added in 1.2581.0 | — | Hours before a downloaded update force-installs. Only applies when auto…third-party/claude-desktop/configuration see the edit
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
Anthropic's documentation has since written up autoUpdaterEnforcementHours, on Configuration reference.