Claude Code’s updates

How Claude Code updates depends on how it was installed. Claudette looks at how yours was, tells you when a newer version is there, and runs the update for you when it can. It never restarts a tab to apply one.

The badge

A small badge appears at the foot of the sidebar: Claude Code 2.1.290 is ready. With the sidebar collapsed it’s an icon. It appears when:

your package manager has a newer version than the one installed, or
the installed version is newer than the one an open tab is running.

Choose it to open a card with the current and the new version, What’s new in Claude Code (a link to Claude Code’s changelog), and the actions that apply:

Update now runs the update and shows its output in the card. When it works, the card reports the new version.
Update on next launch, for installs that can’t be replaced while a tab runs them (see the table). It runs the update the next time Claudette starts, before any tab starts. Don’t update on next launch takes it back.
Dismiss hides the badge until a newer version comes along. It stays hidden across restarts, and goes away by itself once no open tab runs an older version.

Settings → Claude Code shows the same details and actions, plus the install method, whether Claude Code updates itself, its channel, the last update attempt, and any warnings claude doctor found, with the fix it suggests.

What Update now does

How Claude Code was installed	How it updates	What Claudette does
The native installer	Updates itself in the background. The new version is used the next time a `claude` starts.	Tells you an update is installed. Update now runs `claude update`.
npm	Updates itself, if the npm global folder is writable.	The same. If it can’t update, the card shows the fix `claude doctor` suggests.
Homebrew	Doesn’t update itself.	Update now runs `brew upgrade claude-code`, or `claude-code@latest` for that cask.
WinGet	Doesn’t update itself.	Update now runs `winget upgrade Anthropic.ClaudeCode`. Windows locks a running program, so this fails while a tab runs it, and Update on next launch takes its place.
apt, dnf or apk	Needs administrator rights.	Shows the command, with Copy. Run it in a terminal; Claudette doesn’t.

Claude Code’s own docs describe its installation and updates.

Tabs keep their version

Open tabs are never restarted. Each tab’s claude keeps the version it started with until you close the tab.

New tabs start on the newly installed version.
To move an open tab to it, close the tab and open a new one, or reopen the session from History.
Pinned tabs pick it up the next time Claudette launches, because restored tabs start new processes.

A tab running an older version says so in its tooltip: Running Claude Code 2.1.284; 2.1.290 is installed. New tabs use 2.1.290.

When Claudette checks

At launch and every 4 hours, Claudette asks Claude Code for its version and for what claude doctor reports. For Homebrew and WinGet it also asks the package manager what’s newer. A native install has no way to ask, so Claudette relies on Claude Code’s own updater and notices the new version.

Check for Claude Code updates automatically in Settings → Claude Code turns the checks off. Check now there runs one.
If updates are turned off in Claude Code itself (DISABLE_UPDATES, set directly or by managed settings), Claudette shows the version and doesn’t offer to update.

A version that’s too old

Claudette needs Claude Code 2.1.284 or later. With an older one, the setup screen offers Update now before any tab starts: see The first launch and Claude Code missing or too old.

Settings

Settings → Claude Code → Check for Claude Code updates automatically: on by default.