[DOCS] DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER env documentation refers to undocumented or non-existent setting
Documentation Type
Incorrect/outdated documentation
Documentation Location
https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/settings#available-settings
Section/Topic
Environment variables / Available settings
Current Documentation
| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
| DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER | Set to 1 to disable automatic updates. This takes precedence over the autoUpdates configuration setting. |
and
| Key | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| apiKeyHelper | Custom script, to be executed in /bin/sh, to generate an auth value. This value will be sent as X-Api-Key and Authorization: Bearer headers for model requests | /bin/generate_temp_api_key.sh |
| cleanupPeriodDays | How long to locally retain chat transcripts based on last activity date (default: 30 days) | 20 |
| env | Environment variables that will be applied to every session | {"FOO": "bar"} |
| includeCoAuthoredBy | Whether to include the co-authored-by Claude byline in git commits and pull requests (default: true) | false |
| permissions | See table below for structure of permissions. | |
| hooks | Configure custom commands to run before or after tool executions. See hooks documentation | {"PreToolUse": {"Bash": "echo 'Running command...'"}} |
| disableAllHooks | Disable all hooks | true |
| model | Override the default model to use for Claude Code | "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929" |
| statusLine | Configure a custom status line to display context. See statusLine documentation | {"type": "command", "command": "~/.claude/statusline.sh"} |
| outputStyle | Configure an output style to adjust the system prompt. See output styles documentation | "Explanatory" |
| forceLoginMethod | Use claudeai to restrict login to Claude.ai accounts, console to restrict login to Claude Console (API usage billing) accounts | claudeai |
| forceLoginOrgUUID | Specify the UUID of an organization to automatically select it during login, bypassing the organization selection step. Requires forceLoginMethod to be set | "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" |
| enableAllProjectMcpServers | Automatically approve all MCP servers defined in project .mcp.json files | true |
| enabledMcpjsonServers | List of specific MCP servers from .mcp.json files to approve | ["memory", "github"] |
| disabledMcpjsonServers | List of specific MCP servers from .mcp.json files to reject | ["filesystem"] |
| useEnterpriseMcpConfigOnly | When set in managed-settings.json, restricts MCP servers to only those defined in managed-mcp.json. See Enterprise MCP configuration | true |
| allowedMcpServers | When set in managed-settings.json, allowlist of MCP servers users can configure. Undefined = no restrictions, empty array = lockdown. Applies to all scopes. Denylist takes precedence. See Enterprise MCP configuration | [{ "serverName": "github" }] |
| deniedMcpServers | When set in managed-settings.json, denylist of MCP servers that are explicitly blocked. Applies to all scopes including enterprise servers. Denylist takes precedence over allowlist. See Enterprise MCP configuration | [{ "serverName": "filesystem" }] |
| awsAuthRefresh | Custom script that modifies the .aws directory (see advanced credential configuration) | aws sso login --profile myprofile |
| awsCredentialExport | Custom script that outputs JSON with AWS credentials (see advanced credential configuration) | /bin/generate_aws_grant.sh |
What's Wrong or Missing?
https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/settings#available-settings does not indicate any setting for disabling autoupdates, even though https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/settings#environment-variables says something about autoUpdates
Suggested Improvement
Document autoUpdates or remove the reference from env vars
Impact
Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand
Additional Context
No response
Also - it's a really poor practice require env vars with top level namespacing.
DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER should really be something like CLAUDE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER
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