Is Claude Code Down? How to Check Claude Code CLI Status in Real-Time

Is Claude Code Down? How to Check Claude Code CLI Status in Real-Time

Quick Answer: To check if Claude Code is down, visit apistatuscheck.com/api/claude-code for real-time monitoring, or check Anthropic's official status.anthropic.com page. Common signs include CLI authentication failures, API rate limit errors, connection timeouts, model not responding, session crashes, and OAuth token expiry issues.

When your AI coding assistant suddenly stops working mid-session, every minute of downtime disrupts your development workflow. Claude Code, Anthropic's official command-line interface for Claude, has become an essential tool for thousands of developers building with AI assistance directly in their terminal. Whether you're seeing authentication errors, API timeouts, or complete session failures, knowing how to quickly verify Claude Code's status can save you hours of troubleshooting and help you decide whether to wait for resolution or switch to alternative workflows.

The recent outage on February 3, 2026, which lasted 20-30 minutes and generated over 50 GitHub issues, highlighted just how critical reliable monitoring has become for developer tools in the AI era.

How to Check Claude Code Status in Real-Time

1. API Status Check (Fastest Method)

The quickest way to verify Claude Code's operational status is through apistatuscheck.com/api/claude-code. This real-time monitoring service:

  • Tests actual CLI endpoints every 60 seconds
  • Shows authentication flow health and API connectivity
  • Tracks historical uptime over 30/60/90 days
  • Provides instant alerts when issues are detected
  • Monitors both API and OAuth services critical for CLI operation

Unlike status pages that rely on manual updates, API Status Check performs active health checks against Claude Code's production endpoints, giving you the most accurate real-time picture of service availability.

2. Official Anthropic Status Page

Anthropic maintains status.anthropic.com as their official communication channel for service incidents. The page displays:

  • Current operational status for Claude API and related services
  • Active incidents and investigations
  • Scheduled maintenance windows
  • Historical incident reports
  • Component-specific status (API, Authentication, Claude.ai, Claude Code CLI)

Pro tip: Subscribe to status updates via email or webhook on the status page to receive immediate notifications when incidents occur—especially critical for Claude Code, which depends on multiple backend services.

3. Check the Claude Code GitHub Repository

The official Claude Code GitHub repository often sees a surge of issue reports during outages. Signs of widespread problems include:

  • Multiple new issues filed in the last hour with similar error messages
  • Maintainers acknowledging a service disruption
  • Community discussions about connectivity problems
  • Official incident labels applied to issues

During the February 3rd outage, over 50 issues were filed within 30 minutes—a clear signal of system-wide problems.

4. Test Your CLI Connection Directly

For developers, running a simple diagnostic command can quickly confirm connectivity:

# Test basic authentication and API connectivity
claude code --version
claude code auth status

# Attempt a simple prompt
echo "print('hello')" | claude code

Look for specific error patterns:

  • Authentication failures
  • Connection timeout errors
  • API rate limit messages (when you haven't exceeded your quota)
  • "Service unavailable" responses

5. Check Related Services

Claude Code depends on multiple Anthropic services. Check status for:

If one component is down, Claude Code functionality may be partially or completely disrupted.

Common Claude Code Issues and How to Identify Them

CLI Authentication Failures

Symptoms:

  • Error: Authentication failed when running commands
  • OAuth login flow never completes
  • "Invalid token" errors despite recent authentication
  • Redirect failures during claude code auth login

What it means: Authentication issues can stem from OAuth service problems, expired sessions, or backend authentication server outages. If you recently authenticated successfully and suddenly see auth errors across multiple commands, it's likely a service-side issue.

Troubleshooting:

# Clear and re-authenticate
claude code auth logout
claude code auth login

# Check token status
claude code auth status

If re-authentication fails or returns timeout errors, the service is likely experiencing problems.

API Rate Limits and Quota Issues

Common error patterns during outages:

  • rate_limit_error messages appearing unusually frequently
  • Rate limits triggering well below your tier's quota
  • Generic "quota exceeded" errors when you have remaining capacity
  • Inconsistent rate limit headers in API responses

Distinguishing service issues from actual limits:

  • Real rate limit: Consistent error with clear quota information, resolvable by waiting
  • Service issue: Sudden rate limit errors across accounts, affecting users with diverse usage patterns, or rate limits that don't match your plan's specifications

Connection Timeouts and Network Errors

Indicators:

  • Commands hang indefinitely without response
  • Timeout errors after 30-60 seconds
  • ECONNREFUSED or ECONNRESET socket errors
  • DNS resolution failures for api.anthropic.com

Error examples:

Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 35.x.x.x:443
Error: socket hang up
Error: Request timeout after 60000ms

These errors often indicate infrastructure problems—load balancers, API gateways, or regional routing issues affecting Claude Code's connectivity.

Model Not Responding

Symptoms:

  • CLI accepts input but never returns output
  • Streaming responses start but never complete
  • Empty or truncated responses
  • "Model unavailable" or generic 500 errors

What it means: Backend model serving infrastructure may be degraded. The CLI successfully connects and authenticates, but the AI model layer fails to generate responses.

Session Crashes and Unexpected Terminations

Patterns:

  • CLI process crashes mid-conversation
  • Segmentation faults or core dumps
  • Session state lost unexpectedly
  • "Connection reset by peer" during active sessions

Distinguishing bugs from outages:

  • Outage: Sudden crashes affecting many users simultaneously, correlated with status reports
  • Bug: Consistent crashes with specific commands or inputs, reproducible across different network conditions

OAuth Token Expiry Issues

Symptoms:

  • Previously working sessions suddenly require re-authentication
  • "Token expired" errors despite recent login
  • Refresh token failures
  • Unable to obtain new access tokens

Service-side causes:

  • OAuth token service outages
  • Session database problems
  • Certificate expiry affecting token validation
  • Clock skew issues in authentication infrastructure

The Real Impact When Claude Code Goes Down

Developer Productivity Loss

Every minute of Claude Code downtime directly impacts development velocity:

  • Active coding sessions interrupted mid-task
  • Context switching overhead as developers shift to manual coding
  • Flow state disruption breaking deep work sessions
  • Deadline pressure intensifies when AI assistance disappears

For a development team of 10 engineers each making $150K annually (~$75/hour), a 30-minute outage represents approximately $375 in lost productivity—and that doesn't account for the context-switching tax.

Coding Workflow Disruption

Modern AI-assisted development workflows break down entirely:

  • Code generation tasks halt completely
  • Refactoring operations must be done manually
  • Documentation writing slows to traditional speeds
  • Debugging assistance unavailable
  • Test generation reverts to manual authorship

Developers who've integrated Claude Code into their daily workflow experience a jarring productivity drop, similar to losing their primary IDE.

Project Timeline Delays

For teams relying on AI acceleration:

  • Sprint commitments at risk when velocity drops 40-60%
  • Demo preparations complicated by lost coding time
  • Deployment schedules may slip if critical features depend on AI assistance
  • Client deliverables delayed when projected AI speedup disappears

The February 3rd outage, though brief at 20-30 minutes, impacted developers across multiple time zones during peak working hours.

Learning Curve Tax

For developers new to Claude Code or learning new technologies:

  • Onboarding workflows pause when AI mentorship unavailable
  • Learning velocity drops without interactive explanations
  • Confidence issues arise when uncertain without AI validation
  • Alternative learning resources (docs, Stack Overflow) create friction

New developers may experience 2-3x slowdown without AI assistance compared to baseline productivity.

Competitive Disadvantage

In fast-moving markets:

  • Competitor products using alternative AI tools maintain velocity
  • First-mover advantage erodes during critical development sprints
  • Feature parity gaps widen when your team loses AI assistance
  • Hiring/retention challenges if tool reliability becomes a pattern

Trust and Adoption Risk

For organizations evaluating AI coding tools:

  • Pilot program success jeopardized by visible outages
  • Enterprise adoption slowed by reliability concerns
  • Budget approval complicated by demonstrated instability
  • Developer satisfaction drops with each interruption

Incident Response Playbook for Claude Code Outages

1. Confirm the Outage Scope

Immediate checks (< 2 minutes):

# Test basic connectivity
claude code auth status

# Check API Status Check
curl -s https://apistatuscheck.com/api/claude-code | jq '.status'

# Verify it's not your network
ping api.anthropic.com
curl -I https://api.anthropic.com

Determine scope:

  • Is it just you, your team, or widespread?
  • Are other Anthropic services affected? (Check Claude API status)
  • Are specific commands failing or all functionality?

2. Implement Immediate Workarounds

Switch to alternative Claude interfaces:

# Fall back to Claude.ai web interface
open https://claude.ai

# Use Claude API directly via curl
curl https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages \
  -H "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4",
    "max_tokens": 1024,
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

Alternative AI coding tools:

Local caching strategies: If you have cached responses from recent Claude Code sessions, consider extracting useful code from terminal scrollback or session logs.

3. Queue Non-Urgent Tasks

Prioritize work that doesn't require AI assistance:

# Create a task backlog
claude_tasks = [
    "Generate unit tests for auth module",
    "Refactor database queries for performance",
    "Write API documentation",
    "Explain complex algorithm in codebase"
]

# Save for when service returns
with open('claude_backlog.txt', 'w') as f:
    f.write('\n'.join(claude_tasks))

Focus on:

  • Code review (human-only)
  • Meeting existing commitments with completed code
  • Planning and documentation that doesn't require code generation
  • Architecture discussions and design work

4. Monitor for Resolution

Set up automated monitoring:

# Simple polling script
while true; do
  status=$(curl -s https://apistatuscheck.com/api/claude-code | jq -r '.status')
  if [ "$status" = "operational" ]; then
    osascript -e 'display notification "Claude Code is back online!" with title "Service Restored"'
    break
  fi
  sleep 60
done

Subscribe to alerts:

5. Communicate with Your Team

For engineering managers:

📢 Team Update: Claude Code Service Disruption

Status: Claude Code CLI is currently experiencing connectivity issues
Duration: Started at [TIME], ongoing
Impact: AI coding assistance unavailable
Workaround: Fall back to Claude.ai web interface or manual coding
ETA: Monitoring status.anthropic.com for updates

Action: Prioritize tasks that don't require AI assistance until resolved.

For stakeholders:

  • Adjust sprint commitments if outage is prolonged
  • Document impact on timeline for retrospectives
  • Prepare alternative estimates without AI acceleration

6. Post-Outage Recovery

Once service is restored:

  1. Verify full functionality:

    claude code auth status
echo "test prompt" | claude code

  2. Process backlog:

    • Work through queued tasks systematically
    • Document any recurring patterns in failures
    • Note which commands returned first vs. remained problematic

  3. Improve resilience:

    • Document your alternative workflows
    • Set up automated monitoring and alerts
    • Create runbooks for future outages
    • Consider multi-tool strategies (Copilot + Claude Code)

  4. Report issues:

    • File detailed GitHub issues if problems persist
    • Include system info, error messages, timestamps
    • Help Anthropic improve service reliability

Preventing Future Claude Code Disruptions

Implement Redundant AI Tooling

Multi-tool strategy for mission-critical development:

{
  "primary": "claude-code",
  "fallbacks": [
    "github-copilot",
    "cursor-editor",
    "claude-api-direct"
  ],
  "switching_triggers": [
    "auth_failure",
    "timeout > 30s",
    "rate_limit_unexpected"
  ]
}

Maintain active subscriptions to 2-3 AI coding tools to eliminate single points of failure.

Cache AI Responses Locally

Session logging for reference:

# Log all Claude Code interactions
claude code --log-file ~/claude-sessions/$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).log

# Extract useful code from logs
grep -A 20 "```" ~/claude-sessions/*.log > recovered-code.txt

Cached responses provide backup reference when service is unavailable.

Monitor Proactively

Automated health checks:

// monitor-claude-code.js
const { exec } = require('child_process');
const schedule = require('node-schedule');

schedule.scheduleJob('*/5 * * * *', async () => {
  exec('claude code auth status', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
    if (error) {
      sendAlert({
        service: 'Claude Code',
        status: 'down',
        error: stderr,
        timestamp: new Date()
      });
    }
  });
});

Run continuous health checks during business hours to catch issues before they block critical work.

Build Local Development Muscle

Maintain core coding skills:

  • Practice manual coding regularly
  • Keep traditional IDE workflows fresh
  • Document complex patterns for reference
  • Don't become entirely dependent on AI assistance

The best backup plan is maintaining strong fundamental development skills.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often does Claude Code go down?

Claude Code generally maintains high reliability, but as a relatively newer CLI tool (compared to mature services), it experiences occasional outages. The February 3, 2026 outage (20-30 minutes) was one of the more significant incidents. Most issues are resolved within 15-30 minutes, though authentication problems can occasionally last longer.

What's the difference between Claude Code and Claude API being down?

Claude Code (the CLI) depends on the Claude API but adds additional layers: OAuth authentication, CLI-specific endpoints, and session management. The API can be operational while Claude Code experiences problems (authentication issues, CLI binary update failures), or vice versa. Always check both services when troubleshooting: Claude API status and Claude Code status.

Can I get refunded for productivity loss during Claude Code outages?

Anthropic's Terms of Service typically exclude liability for consequential damages like lost productivity. Enterprise customers with custom agreements may have SLA credits for downtime. Review your specific agreement or contact Anthropic support for clarification on your plan's terms. For most developers using standard plans, no compensation is provided for outages.

Should I use Claude Code or the web interface for mission-critical work?

This depends on your workflow and risk tolerance. Claude.ai (web interface) often has different infrastructure and may remain operational when the CLI experiences issues. For truly mission-critical work with hard deadlines, consider a hybrid approach: primary development in your preferred interface (CLI or web) with the ability to quickly switch to the alternative. Better yet, implement multi-tool redundancy with GitHub Copilot or Cursor as backups.

How do I prevent losing work when Claude Code crashes mid-session?

Implement defensive coding practices:

  • Save frequently - Don't rely on AI-generated code staying in terminal buffer
  • Use version control - Commit working code before requesting large changes
  • Session logging - Run claude code with logging enabled to capture all output
  • Incremental requests - Break large refactoring tasks into smaller, committable chunks
  • Buffer management - Increase terminal scrollback buffer to retain more history

What regions does Claude Code serve?

Claude Code relies on Anthropic's global infrastructure. While the service doesn't have region-specific endpoints like some cloud providers, network routing and CDN distribution can cause regional variations in availability. During outages, some geographic regions may experience longer disruption than others based on infrastructure dependencies.

Are there alternative CLIs for Claude API?

Yes, several community-built and unofficial CLIs exist for interacting with Claude API, including:

  • claude-cli (npm package)
  • anthropic-sdk Python CLI examples
  • Custom scripts using curl/httpie with Claude API

However, these alternatives don't offer the same integrated experience as official Claude Code and may lack features like context management, session persistence, and optimized prompt handling. They can serve as emergency fallbacks during CLI-specific outages.

Why did the February 3, 2026 outage generate 50+ GitHub issues?

The February 3rd outage occurred during peak working hours across US and European time zones, impacting thousands of developers simultaneously. Because Claude Code integrates directly into development workflows, developers immediately noticed the disruption and turned to GitHub to:

  • Report the issue
  • Check if others experienced the same problem
  • Find workarounds
  • Express frustration

This incident underscored how critical real-time status monitoring has become. Many developers could have saved time by checking API Status Check first before filing duplicate issues.

Stay Ahead of Claude Code Outages

Don't let CLI disruptions derail your development workflow. Subscribe to real-time Claude Code alerts and get notified instantly when issues are detected—before you waste time troubleshooting.

API Status Check monitors Claude Code 24/7 with:

  • 60-second health checks of CLI authentication and API endpoints
  • Instant alerts via email, Slack, Discord, or webhook
  • Historical uptime tracking and incident reports
  • Multi-service monitoring for your entire AI development stack (Claude API, OpenAI, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and more)

Start monitoring Claude Code now →

Last updated: February 5, 2026. Claude Code status information is provided in real-time based on active monitoring. For official incident reports, always refer to status.anthropic.com.

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