CLI reference

CLI commands

You can start sessions, pipe content, resume conversations, and manage updates with these commands:

Command	Description	Example
`claude`	Start interactive session	`claude`
`claude "query"`	Start interactive session with initial prompt	`claude "explain this project"`
`claude -p "query"`	Query via SDK, then exit	`claude -p "explain this function"`
`cat file \| claude -p "query"`	Process piped content	`cat logs.txt \| claude -p "explain"`
`claude -c`	Continue most recent conversation in current directory	`claude -c`
`claude -c -p "query"`	Continue via SDK	`claude -c -p "Check for type errors"`
`claude -r "<session>" "query"`	Resume session by ID or name	`claude -r "auth-refactor" "Finish this PR"`
`claude update`	Update to latest version	`claude update`
`claude gateway`	Start the self-hosted Claude apps gateway server, for administrators deploying SSO and policy in front of Claude Code on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, or Microsoft Foundry. Requires `--config` pointing at a `gateway.yaml`. Available in Claude Code v2.1.195 and later.	`claude gateway --config gateway.yaml`
`claude install [version]`	Install or reinstall the native binary. Accepts a version like `2.1.118`, or `stable` or `latest`. See Install a specific version	`claude install stable`
`claude auth login`	Sign in to your Anthropic account. Use `--email` to pre-fill your email address, `--sso` to force SSO authentication, and `--console` to sign in with Anthropic Console for API usage billing instead of a Claude subscription	`claude auth login --console`
`claude auth logout`	Log out from your Anthropic account	`claude auth logout`
`claude auth status`	Show authentication status as JSON. Use `--text` for human-readable output. Exits with code 0 if logged in, 1 if not	`claude auth status`
`claude agents`	Open agent view to monitor and dispatch parallel background sessions. Use `--cwd <path>` to show only sessions started under that directory, or `--json` to print active sessions as a JSON array for scripting (`--json --all` also includes completed background sessions). Pass `--permission-mode`, `--model`, `--effort`, or `--agent` to set defaults for dispatched sessions. Accepts `--settings`, `--add-dir`, `--plugin-dir`, and `--mcp-config` like the top-level `claude` command. Opening agent view requires an interactive terminal	`claude agents --json`
`claude attach <id>`	Attach to a background session in this terminal	`claude attach 7c5dcf5d`
`claude auto-mode defaults`	Print the built-in auto mode classifier rules as JSON. Use `claude auto-mode config` to see your effective config with settings applied. `--label <prefix>` prints only the rules whose label starts with that prefix, matched case-insensitively. Requires Claude Code v2.1.208 or later	`claude auto-mode defaults --label 'Git Destructive'`
`claude auto-mode reset`	Restore the default auto mode configuration by removing the `autoMode` section from your user settings file. Prompts for confirmation before writing; pass `-y`/`--yes` to skip the prompt. Rules from managed settings or the `--settings` flag still apply. Requires Claude Code v2.1.212 or later. See Inspect the defaults and your effective config	`claude auto-mode reset --yes`
`claude daemon status`	Print the background-session supervisor’s state, version, socket directory, and worker count for diagnostics. Exits 1 if the supervisor isn’t running	`claude daemon status`
`claude daemon stop --any`	Stop the background-session supervisor and the sessions it hosts. Pass `--keep-workers` to leave background sessions running so the next supervisor reconnects to them. `--any` confirms stopping an on-demand supervisor, which is the default. Use this to recover from an unresponsive supervisor	`claude daemon stop --any --keep-workers`
`claude doctor`	Print read-only installation and settings diagnostics from the terminal without starting a session, including install health, settings-file validation errors, and Remote Control eligibility. For the in-session setup checkup that can also apply fixes, run `/doctor`	`claude doctor`
`claude import [source]`	Start an interactive session that runs `/import` to bring configuration from other coding agents into Claude Code. Accepts the same `--dry-run` and `--yes` options as the command. Not available on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, Microsoft Foundry, or Claude Platform on AWS. Also unavailable when you turn off feature-flag fetching. Requires Claude Code v2.1.213 or later	`claude import codex --dry-run`
`claude logs <id>`	Print recent output from a background session	`claude logs 7c5dcf5d`
`claude mcp`	Configure Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers	See the Claude Code MCP documentation.
`claude mcp login <name>`	Run a configured MCP server’s OAuth flow without opening the interactive `/mcp` panel. Works for HTTP, SSE, and claude.ai connector servers. Add `--no-browser` over SSH to print the authorization URL instead of opening a browser, then paste the redirect URL back at the prompt. Requires Claude Code v2.1.186 or later. See Authenticate from the command line	`claude mcp login sentry`
`claude mcp logout <name>`	Clear stored OAuth credentials for an MCP server. Requires Claude Code v2.1.186 or later	`claude mcp logout sentry`
`claude plugin`	Manage Claude Code plugins. Alias: `claude plugins`. See plugin reference for subcommands	`claude plugin install code-review@claude-plugins-official`
`claude project purge [path]`	Delete all local Claude Code state for a project: transcripts, task lists, debug logs, file-edit history, prompt history lines, and the project’s entry in `~/.claude.json`. Omit `[path]` to pick from an interactive list. Flags: `--dry-run` to preview, `-y`/`--yes` to skip confirmation, `-i`/`--interactive` to confirm each item, `--all` for every project. See Clear local data	`claude project purge ~/work/repo --dry-run`
`claude remote-control`	Start a Remote Control server to control Claude Code from Claude.ai or the Claude app. Runs in server mode (no local interactive session). See Server mode flags. After you stop the server, you can bring back the sessions it was serving. See Resume sessions after stopping the server	`claude remote-control --name "My Project"`
`claude respawn <id>`	Restart a background session, running or stopped, with its conversation intact. Use `--all` to restart every running session, e.g. to pick up an updated Claude Code binary	`claude respawn 7c5dcf5d`
`claude rm <id>`	Remove a background session from the list. When the removal is refused over the session’s worktree and a second `claude rm` can resolve it, the refusal prints the exact flag and value to pass: `--discard-unpushed <commit>@<worktree-id>` discards a worktree that has unpushed commits along with those commits, and `--force-remove-worktree <worktree-id>` deletes a worktree directory that git or the `WorktreeRemove` hook couldn’t remove. `--discard-unpushed` requires Claude Code v2.1.260 or later, and `--force-remove-worktree` requires v2.1.268 or later. The conversation transcript stays on your local machine, available through `claude --resume`	`claude rm 7c5dcf5d`
`claude self-hosted-runner`	Start a runner process that registers this machine or container with a self-hosted environment and hosts Claude Code cloud sessions on your infrastructure. Run `claude self-hosted-runner setup` for a guided operator walkthrough, `claude self-hosted-runner doctor` to diagnose a deployed runner, and `claude self-hosted-runner orchestrator` to spawn on-demand runners. Requires Claude Code v2.1.224 or later	`claude self-hosted-runner setup`
`claude setup-token`	Generate a long-lived OAuth token for CI and scripts. Prints the token to the terminal without saving it. Requires a Claude subscription. See Generate a long-lived token	`claude setup-token`
`claude stop <id>`	Stop a background session. Also accepts `claude kill`	`claude stop 7c5dcf5d`
`claude ultrareview [target]`	Run ultrareview non-interactively. Prints findings to stdout and exits 0 on success or 1 on failure. Use `--json` for the raw payload and `--timeout <minutes>` to override the 45-minute default. Use `--post` on a `github.com` pull request target to post the finished findings to the PR as one plain comment from your GitHub account. `--no-post` is the default. `--post` and `--no-post` require Claude Code v2.1.227 or later. See Post findings to the pull request	`claude ultrareview 1234 --json`

If you mistype a subcommand, Claude Code suggests the closest match and exits without starting a session. For example, claude udpate prints Did you mean claude update?. As of v2.1.199, claude --dangerously-skip-permissions daemon <subcommand> runs the daemon subcommand. Earlier versions treated daemon <subcommand> as the prompt for a new interactive session, so the subcommand never ran when the flag came first, a common setup when claude is aliased to include the flag. Only a leading --dangerously-skip-permissions or --allow-dangerously-skip-permissions routes to daemon this way; any other leading flag still starts an interactive session.

CLI flags

Customize Claude Code’s behavior with these command-line flags. claude --help does not list every flag, so a flag’s absence from --help does not mean it is unavailable.

Flag	Description	Example
`--add-dir`	Add additional working directories for Claude to read and edit files. Grants file access; Claude Code doesn’t discover most `.claude/` configuration from these directories. Validates that each path exists as a directory. You can’t add most network paths, such as `\\server\share`. To persist these directories across sessions, set `permissions.additionalDirectories` in settings	`claude --add-dir ../apps ../lib`
`--advisor <model>`	Enable the server-side advisor tool for this session with a model alias, `fable`, `opus`, or `sonnet`, or a full model ID. Takes precedence over the `advisorModel` setting for the session. `fable` requires Fable access	`claude --advisor opus`
`--agent`	Specify an agent for the current session (overrides the `agent` setting)	`claude --agent my-custom-agent`
`--agents`	Define custom subagents dynamically via JSON. Accepts the fields listed for CLI-defined subagents. Claude Code validates the JSON at startup and exits on an invalid value; see `Invalid --agents configuration` for the message and for the flags and environment variable that skip the validation. Validation requires Claude Code v2.1.242 or later	`claude --agents '{"reviewer":{"description":"Reviews code","prompt":"You are a code reviewer"}}'`
`--allow-dangerously-skip-permissions`	Add `bypassPermissions` to the `Shift+Tab` mode cycle without starting in it. Lets you begin in a different mode like `plan` and switch to `bypassPermissions` later. See permission modes	`claude --permission-mode plan --allow-dangerously-skip-permissions`
`--allowedTools`, `--allowed-tools`	Tools that execute without prompting for permission. See permission rule syntax for pattern matching. To restrict which tools are available, use `--tools` instead. If you name one of the task-tracking tools here, Claude Code also opts the session in	`"Bash(git log )" "Bash(git diff )" "Read"`
`--append-subagent-system-prompt`	Append custom text to the end of every subagent’s system prompt, nested subagents included, apart from a forked subagent, which reuses the conversation’s own prompt. Only applies in non-interactive mode with `-p`. Requires Claude Code v2.1.205 or later	`claude -p --append-subagent-system-prompt "Cite file paths in every answer" "query"`
`--append-subagent-system-prompt-file`	Load text from a file and append it to subagent system prompts. An alternative to `--append-subagent-system-prompt` for text too long to pass on the command line. The two flags can’t be combined. Only applies in non-interactive mode with `-p`. Requires Claude Code v2.1.261 or later	`claude -p --append-subagent-system-prompt-file ./subagent-rules.txt "query"`
`--append-system-prompt`	Append custom text to the end of the default system prompt	`claude --append-system-prompt "Always use TypeScript"`
`--append-system-prompt-file`	Load additional system prompt text from a file and append to the default prompt	`claude --append-system-prompt-file ./extra-rules.txt`
`--autocompact <auto\|tokens>`	Set the auto-compact window for this session without changing your saved settings. Accepts the same values as `/autocompact`; that section covers the value forms and what overrides the flag. Requires Claude Code v2.1.221 or later	`claude --autocompact 500k`
`--ax-screen-reader`	Render screen-reader friendly output: flat text without decorative borders or animations. Forces the classic renderer, so the `tui` setting has no effect; attached background sessions still render fullscreen. Takes precedence over `CLAUDE_AX_SCREEN_READER` and the `axScreenReader` setting. Requires Claude Code v2.1.181 or later	`claude --ax-screen-reader`
`--bare`	Minimal mode: skip auto-discovery of hooks, skills, custom commands, subagents, plugins, MCP servers, auto memory, and CLAUDE.md so scripted calls start faster. Skills in a directory you pass with `--add-dir` still load. Claude has access to Bash, file read, and file edit tools. Sets `CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE`. See bare mode	`claude --bare -p "query"`
`--betas`	Beta headers to include in API requests (API key users only)	`claude --betas interleaved-thinking`
`--bg`, `--background`	Start the session as a background agent and return immediately. Prints the session ID and management commands. Combine with `--exec` to run a shell command as a background job instead of a Claude session, or with `--agent` to run a specific subagent. Can’t be combined with `-p`/`--print`; see the error reference	`claude --bg "investigate the flaky test"`
`--channels`	(Research preview) MCP servers whose channel notifications Claude should listen for in this session. Space-separated list of `plugin:<name>@<marketplace>` entries. Requires Anthropic authentication through claude.ai or a Console API key	`claude --channels plugin:my-notifier@my-marketplace`
`--chrome`	Enable Chrome browser integration for web automation and testing	`claude --chrome`
`--cloud`	With a task description, create a new web session on claude.ai. With a session ID (`session_...` or `cse_...`) or a claude.ai/code URL, queue a message into that existing session instead, with `-p`. See send a follow-up message.	`claude --cloud "Fix the login bug"`
`--continue`, `-c`	Load the most recent conversation in the current directory, including a background session that has finished; opening finished background sessions requires Claude Code v2.1.257 or later. Skips sessions created with `claude -p` or the Agent SDK, and sessions whose first prompt was `/loop`. `claude -p --continue` includes `-p`, SDK, and `/loop` sessions. Includes sessions that added this directory with `/add-dir`	`claude --continue`
`--dangerously-load-development-channels`	Enable channels that are not on the approved allowlist, for local development. Accepts `plugin:<name>@<marketplace>` and `server:<name>` entries. Prompts for confirmation

Reference

Glossary

CLI commands

CLI flags

​CLI commands

​CLI flags

CLI commands

CLI flags