You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
2Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
UpdaterArea: what it touches
Bug FixesKind: in v2.1.277,
Bug FixesSection of the release
What
For Claude Code installed via winget (Windows) or apk (Alpine Linux), if the check for a newer version can't get a valid answer from the npm registry, Claude Code now prints "Could not check for updates (npm lookup failed or returned an invalid response)" along with manual upgrade instructions (winget upgrade Anthropic.ClaudeCode or apk upgrade claude-code). Previously this case produced no message at all.
Why
This means you'll know when an update check silently failed instead of assuming you're already on the latest version, and you're given the exact command to upgrade manually.
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 sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up winget, on Advanced setup.<span id="winget-installation" />setupsee the edit
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up apk, on Advanced setup.Installations from the apt, dnf, and apk repositories choose a channel by repository instead of this setting. To switch one, follow [Install with Linux package managers](#install-with-linux-package-managers).setupsee the edit
How sure we are
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agreesAnthropic's documentation has since written up apk, on Advanced setup.
