SSL certificate errors now explain the likely corporate-proxy cause and link to setup docs
When Claude Code fails to connect because of a certificate verification error (such as an unverifiable or self-signed certificate), the error message now explains that this usually happens because of a corporate proxy that inspects TLS traffic, or a private certificate authority gateway. It points to the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable as the fix, and links to the network configuration documentation page.
This makes it much easier to understand and resolve a common cause of connection failures on corporate networks, instead of just seeing a cryptic certificate error.
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.
Unable to connect to API: SSL certificate verification failed (UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY). The certificate comes from an authority Claude Code doesn't trust, usually a TLS-inspecting corporate proxy or a gateway signed by a private…errors see the edit
Anthropic's documentation has since written up NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS, on Error reference.
Improved the in-session SSL certificate and proxy connection errors to name the error code and what to fix, such as NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS for…