update-claude Skill

What this skill does

When invoked, install the update-claude shell function into the user's shell configuration file. This function safely updates Claude Code (@anthropic-ai/claude-code) in nvm environments by removing the old package directory before reinstalling, which avoids the common ENOTEMPTY error.

Instructions

1. Detect the user's shell by checking $SHELL (bash or zsh).
2. Determine the rc file path:
   • For zsh: ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshrc
   • For bash: $HOME/.bashrc
3. Check if the update-claude function already exists in the rc file. If it does, inform the user and skip.
4. Append the following function to the rc file:

# Claude Code updater - avoid ENOTEMPTY errors in nvm environments
update-claude() {
  echo "Current version: $(claude --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'unknown')"
  local pkg_dir="$(npm root -g)/@anthropic-ai/claude-code"
  echo "Package path: $pkg_dir"
  echo "Removing old version..."
  rm -rf "$pkg_dir"
  echo "Installing latest version..."
  npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Update complete! Version: $(claude --version)"
  else
    echo "Installation failed. Check error logs."
    return 1
  fi
}

5. Source the rc file to make the function immediately available.
6. Confirm success to the user by showing which file was modified.

Usage after installation

The user can run update-claude in their terminal at any time to safely update Claude Code.