Versions

Claude Code latest version and release notes

Q: An update broke something. How do I go back?

Set autoUpdatesChannel to stable, which is typically a week behind and skips releases with major regressions. The native installer also accepts a specific version number; see Anthropic's setup guide.

Q: Does updating change my relay settings?

No. ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and the token live in ~/.claude/settings.json or environment variables, which an update leaves alone. See Claude Code setup.

Published October 30, 2026 · Last checked October 30, 2026

Claude Code ships a release almost every day. This page records the current version, how to update, and the changes in recent releases that matter most for everyday use, summarized from Anthropic's CHANGELOG. Version numbers come from the npm release history of @anthropic-ai/claude-code, checked on October 30, 2026.

Key points

The current versions of the latest and stable channels are in the table below, synced from npm every hour; stable is typically about a week behind.
Native installs update in the background. Homebrew, WinGet and Linux package managers do not by default and need a manual upgrade.
claude --version shows the version, claude update updates now, and claude doctor shows whether the last update worked.
A newly launched model can need a newer Claude Code than the stable channel serves; move to the latest channel to use it right away.

Current versions

Channel	Version	Released	What it means
latest (default)	2.1.317	November 2, 2026	New features as soon as they ship
stable	2.1.311	October 26, 2026	Typically about a week behind, skipping releases with major regressions

Recent releases: 2.1.317 (November 2), 2.1.316 (October 31), 2.1.315 (October 30), 2.1.314 (October 30), 2.1.312 (October 27). Versions and dates sync from npm every hour, in UTC.

Checking your version and updating

claude --version   # show the current version
claude update      # update to the newest version on your channel now
claude doctor      # check the install, settings files and the last auto-update

Native install (curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash) updates itself in the background.
Homebrew: claude-code follows the stable channel and claude-code@latest the latest channel. Neither auto-updates by default; run brew upgrade claude-code or brew upgrade claude-code@latest.
WinGet: no auto-update by default; run winget upgrade Anthropic.ClaudeCode.

Switching between latest and stable

Open /config in Claude Code and change Auto-update channel, or set it in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "autoUpdatesChannel": "stable"
}

To turn auto-updates off, add "DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER": "1" to the env key of the same file. If a new model is out and the stable channel's version does not know it yet, move back to latest and run claude update.

Notable changes in recent releases

Each release's full list is long. These are the entries that matter most for everyday use, and for running Claude Code through a gateway or relay.

2.1.314 (October 30)

Added permissions.blockWritesOutsideWorkingDirectories: Write, Edit and NotebookEdit refuse paths outside the working directories in every permission mode.
Added idle compaction to VS Code and Claude Desktop's Code tab: a conversation over 200K tokens left idle is summarized, and the summary is used on your next message if the prompt cache has expired.
Fixed repeated refused requests behind a gateway that does not accept tool search's tool_reference blocks; the request is now sent once without tool search, and the session remembers.
Fixed sessions failing every turn with "Invalid effort level" when an admin caps a model's effort; Claude Code now lowers the effort, retries and says which level it used.
Fixed claude -p exiting with code 0 and no output when startup failed; it now prints the error and exits 1.

2.1.312 (October 27)

Fixed Claude overwriting a very large CLAUDE.md, rules file or @-included file in a subdirectory after seeing only its start; Write now asks Claude to read it all or edit in place.
Fixed per-directory skills not being found after a Bash cd deeper into a git repository.
Usage limit messages now call the 5-hour window the "5-hour limit" instead of the "session limit".
Prompt and agent hooks now run at most 24 at a time per session, subagents included.

2.1.311 (October 26)

Fixed standard-context sessions stopping with "Usage credits required for 1M context" when a request ran over 200K tokens; Claude Code now compacts the conversation and continues.
Fixed long freezes at startup and after reading or editing files when a CLAUDE.md holds a very long list item.
Fixed Claude seeing stale MEMORY.md and CLAUDE.md content right after automatic compaction.
Fixed subagents being unable to use tools from MCP servers that finish connecting after the subagent starts.

2.1.310 (October 23)

Fixed requests failing behind some gateways and compatible servers that reject the effort-2025-11-24 beta value or mid-conversation system messages; Claude Code now retries without them. If you use a gateway or relay, update to at least this version.
Fixed compaction after a "Prompt is too long" error keeping too much dense text, such as base64 or SVG, so the next request could fail again.
Lower memory use during compaction in non-interactive sessions (-p, Agent SDK) with very large transcripts.

FAQ

An update broke something. How do I go back?

Set autoUpdatesChannel to stable, which is typically a week behind and skips releases with major regressions. The native installer also accepts a specific version number; see Anthropic's setup guide.

Does updating change my relay settings?

No. ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and the token live in ~/.claude/settings.json or environment variables, which an update leaves alone. See Claude Code setup.

How often is this page updated?

The date at the top is the last time it was checked. For the newest version, trust the output of claude update and the CHANGELOG.

Sources

anthropics/claude-code: CHANGELOG.md
npm: @anthropic-ai/claude-code (versions, release dates, and the latest and stable dist-tags)
Claude Code: Set up Claude Code (auto-updates, release channels, claude update, claude doctor)