What
Claude Code has a built-in diagnostic prompt that walks Claude through a series of checks, one of which checks the Claude Code version. That check now depends on how Claude Code is running.
- Inside Claude Desktop: Claude skips looking up the latest version. It reports the version the session is running and that updates arrive with Claude Desktop, with notes about copies installed over SSH or in WSL.
- Everywhere else: the version lookup runs as before. If the online lookup fails, Claude now says the latest version could not be determined and moves on, without retrying aggressively or trying other addresses.
Why
People using Claude Code through Claude Desktop are no longer told to run claude update, which does not apply to them. Elsewhere, a failed version lookup no longer turns into repeated retries.
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Which command or skill runs this diagnostic prompt is not stated.