zsh: command not found: claude — install Claude Code and fix PATH

Short answer: zsh: command not found: claude (or bash: claude: command not found on Linux, 'claude' is not recognized... on Windows) means either Claude Code is not installed yet, or it is installed but its folder is not on your shell’s PATH. Anthropic’s own recommended fix is the native installer, which puts the binary at ~/.local/bin/claude:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Open a new terminal window afterwards — the one you installed from keeps its old PATH — and check:

claude --version

Everything below is checked against Anthropic’s own setup and troubleshooting documentation for Claude Code.

Which message are you seeing?

In every case the fix is the same: install it, or fix the PATH. Work out which.

Install Claude Code

Anthropic’s recommended method is the native installer — it installs a standalone binary (not a Node.js script) and updates itself automatically in the background:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

Three other install methods exist, and each has its own PATH behaviour:

npm installs require Node.js 22 or later. On an older Node, npm prints an EBADENGINE warning but still finishes the install, and claude still runs, because the npm package only pulls down a native binary through a per-platform optional dependency — it does not run under Node at all once installed.

“Installed but still not found”: fix the PATH

The native installer places the binary at ~/.local/bin/claude on macOS and Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\claude.exe on Windows, and tells you in its own output when that folder is missing from PATH — a line starting Native installation exists but ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH. If you missed that line, or the folder was dropped from PATH afterwards, this is the fix.

First: is it actually there?

ls -la ~/.local/bin/claude

Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin\claude.exe"

No such file or directory (or False) means there is no native install — install it with the command above. A listing (or True) means the binary exists and the problem is PATH; continue below.

Then: is that folder on your PATH?

echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n' | grep -Fx "$HOME/.local/bin"

A printed path means it is already there — something else is wrong; see conflicting installs below. No output at all means it is missing, and here is the permanent fix, two commands for your shell:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

On macOS specifically, Terminal starts Bash as a login shell, which never reads ~/.bashrc on its own — it reads the first of ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login or ~/.profile that exists. If you use Bash rather than zsh on a Mac, put the line in ~/.bash_profile instead (or whichever of the three already exists), not ~/.bashrc.

On Windows PowerShell, add the directory to your user PATH permanently rather than with $env:PATH alone, which only lasts for the current window:

$currentPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', 'User')
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', "$currentPath;$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin", 'User')

Restart your terminal afterwards, then confirm:

claude --version

Several installs fighting each other

claude can come from three places at once on the same machine: the native installer at ~/.local/bin/claude, a legacy local install at ~/.claude/local/ left behind by an older version of Claude Code, and a global npm install. If PATH finds the wrong one first, you get an old version or odd behaviour rather than “not found.” List every claude your shell can see:

which -a claude
npm -g ls @anthropic-ai/claude-code 2>/dev/null

where.exe claude

Anthropic’s own recommendation is to keep only the native install and remove the others:

npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

rm -rf ~/.claude/local

On Windows: “Claude Code requires Git for Windows or PowerShell”

Git for Windows is optional, not required — Claude Code falls back to the PowerShell tool when it cannot find Git Bash, so this message means neither was found at all. Installing Git for Windows with “Add to PATH” selected fixes it; if PowerShell itself is missing from PATH, its default location is C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\.

On Alpine Linux

Alpine and other musl-based distributions do not ship bash or curl by default, so the standard install command fails with a bare not found. Install them first, along with the runtime libraries Claude Code needs there:

apk add bash curl libgcc libstdc++ ripgrep

If ripgrep is missing from Alpine’s main repository for your version, Anthropic’s docs point at the community repository; after adding it and running apk update, set USE_BUILTIN_RIPGREP=0 in settings.json under env.

Confirm it, for good

claude --version
claude doctor

claude --version prints a version string such as 2.1.211 (Claude Code). claude doctor runs a fuller, read-only diagnostic — install health, settings-file errors, update status — without starting a session, and is the fastest way to seewhy something is off once the bare command not found is gone.

Another tool missing after a fresh install, or a PATH problem on a different command entirely? See npx: command not found, nvm: command not found, or the general pattern in command not found: the three causes and the fix for every tool.

Frequently asked