Installing Claude on Arch Linux | Using AUR and the Official Installer

Three Options for Running Claude on Arch Linux

There are three main ways to run Claude Code on Arch Linux:

1. Official native installer — Places a single binary via install.sh. Supports background auto-updates with minimal setup effort.
2. AUR package — Install using an AUR helper like yay or paru, following pacman conventions. Ideal for those who want to manage updates through pacman.
3. npm global install — For those who already have a Node.js environment. The underlying binary is identical to the official installer.

The official setup documentation lists supported operating systems as macOS 13.0+, Windows 10 1809+, Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 10+, and Alpine 3.19+. Arch Linux is not mentioned by name. However, this means it is "not officially guaranteed" rather than "non-functional" — in practice, both the native installer and npm work fine on x64 / ARM64 Arch systems.

Installing via the Official Native Installer (Recommended)

The quickest method is the official install script. It requires no pacman involvement and completes entirely with user-level permissions.

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

This script places the binary at ~/.local/bin/claude and related files under ~/.local/share/claude. If ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH, add the following to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

The native install version auto-updates on launch and in the background, so manual updates are generally unnecessary. To pin to the stable channel, pass bash -s stable; to install a specific version, pass something like bash -s 2.1.89. The ripgrep binary used for search is bundled, so no additional packages are needed on Arch (glibc environments).

Installing Claude Code from AUR

If you want to manage all installed packages through pacman, use the AUR package claude-code. With a helper like yay, it's a single command:

# Using an AUR helper (yay / paru)
yay -S claude-code
# or
paru -S claude-code

Several variants exist in the AUR:

• claude-code — The standard package.
• claude-code-stable — Tracks the stable release channel.
• claude-code-stable-bin — Pre-built binary version (-bin is Arch convention for using distributed binaries rather than building from source).

To install manually without an AUR helper, clone the repository and build with makepkg:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/claude-code.git
cd claude-code
makepkg -si

Important: all AUR packages are community-maintained (by individual maintainers) and are not official Anthropic releases. Before building with makepkg, always review the PKGBUILD contents, check whether updates are kept current, and verify the maintainer is trustworthy — this is standard Arch practice. Also note that when installed via AUR, Claude Code's built-in auto-update feature is disabled; updates must be performed through pacman or your AUR helper.

Notes on Installing via npm

If you already use Node.js, you can also install Claude Code via npm. Node.js 18 or higher is required.

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

The binary fetched internally by the npm package is identical to the one from the native installer. It uses a mechanism that links platform-specific optional dependencies (linux-x64, linux-arm64, and linux-x64-musl for musl environments, etc.) during postinstall, so your package manager must allow optional dependencies.

The most important caveat is to avoid sudo npm install -g, as it can cause permission issues and security risks. If you encounter permission errors with the global directory, resolve this by configuring npm's global prefix to a location under your home directory. To upgrade, use npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest rather than npm update -g.

Running the GUI Desktop App on Arch

The official Claude desktop app is only available for macOS and Windows — there is no Linux distribution. To use a GUI on Arch, you can use an unofficial PKGBUILD that repackages the Windows Electron app for Linux.

The previously popular aaddrick/claude-desktop-arch was a PKGBUILD that extracted the Windows installer contents, stripped Windows-specific code, and bundled Electron. However, this repository was archived on November 8, 2025, and is now read-only. The maintainer now points to jkoelker/claude-desktop-native as its successor. For new installations, refer to the successor project's instructions.

To build from the archived version, the process is as follows:

git clone https://github.com/aaddrick/claude-desktop-arch.git
cd claude-desktop-arch
updpkgsums
makepkg -si

makepkg -si automatically resolves dependencies (such as electron and asar) via pacman, then builds and installs the package. The package name is claude-desktop, and MCP settings are written to ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. If you prefer an easy AppImage-based option, you can also install claude-desktop-appimage from the AUR with yay -S claude-desktop-appimage.

Authentication and Verification

After installation, run claude in a terminal to start the browser-based authentication flow.

claude

A Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise, or Console account is required — Claude Code cannot be used with a free Claude.ai plan. To confirm the installation is working correctly, run:

claude --version
claude doctor

claude doctor provides a comprehensive diagnosis of your installation state, auto-update results, and any configuration issues — it's worth running first when troubleshooting errors like command not found.

Updating and Uninstalling

The update and removal steps vary depending on how you installed Claude Code:

• Native installer version: Auto-updates. Run claude update for an immediate update. To remove, delete ~/.local/bin/claude and ~/.local/share/claude.
• AUR version: Update with yay -Syu (or paru -Syu); remove with sudo pacman -R claude-code.
• npm version: Update with npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest; remove with npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code.
• Desktop version: Remove with sudo pacman -R claude-desktop.

To fully remove settings and session history, delete the ~/.claude directory and ~/.claude.json. Note that if VS Code extensions, JetBrains plugins, or the desktop app are still installed, ~/.claude may be recreated on next launch.

Summary

While Arch Linux is not an officially supported OS for Claude Code, it works in practice without issues. As a general guideline: choose the official native installer for ease of use and auto-updates; choose AUR (with the understanding that it is community-maintained) if you want to manage everything through pacman; and choose npm if you already have a Node.js environment. For a GUI, unofficial PKGBUILDs are available, but always check the repository's archive status and successor situation before installing.

Sources: Claude Code Official Setup Guide / AUR: claude-code / aaddrick/claude-desktop-arch / jkoelker/claude-desktop-native