[BUG]

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Description

A background auto-update appears to have run unprompted on macOS and broke the install. Afterwards claude failed with:

zsh: permission denied: claude

which claude returned claude not found while running claude returned permission denied (stale shell hash). After hash -r, the cause became visible: the global bin symlink pointed to a Windows binary:

.../bin/claude -> ../lib/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-code/bin/claude.exe

The package bin/ directory contained only claude.exe, sized just 500 bytes — too small to be a valid launcher, suggesting a truncated/corrupt write. No macOS launcher (extension-less binary or cli.js) was present at all, so every invocation hit permission denied.

File timestamps (22:02 and 22:16 local) matched the suspected auto-update window. No manual update was triggered.

Recovery was also blocked

Both npm uninstall -g and npm install -g failed:

npm error code ENOTEMPTY
npm error syscall rename
ENOTEMPTY: directory not empty, rename
  '.../@anthropic-ai/claude-code' -> '.../@anthropic-ai/.claude-code-<hash>'

The failed auto-update left the package directory in an inconsistent state that blocked npm from replacing it.

Workaround that fixed it

rm -rf <prefix>/lib/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-code
rm -rf <prefix>/lib/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/.claude-code-<hash>
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
hash -r

After this, the symlink resolved correctly and claude --version returned 2.1.160.

Environment

• Platform: macOS (Apple Silicon, MacBook Air)
• Node: v22.19.0 (installed via nvm)
• Install method: global npm (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code)
• Shell: zsh
• Version after recovery: 2.1.160

Suggested areas to investigate

• Platform detection in the auto-updater (why a Windows .exe was selected/written on macOS)
• The 500-byte truncated binary (incomplete download/write?)
• Auto-update leaving the package dir non-empty in a way that blocks subsequent npm operations — standard uninstall/reinstall could not recover it, which most users won't know how to fix manually

What Should Happen?

Autoupdate should have worked, an Clude code should have worked when trying to launch a new session

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

I can't be sure how to reproduce this, I just happened, and I thought you wanted to know

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.160

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_