What's new in Claude Code v2.1.132

Claude Code v2.1.132 fixes a 10GB+ RSS leak from stdio MCP servers writing to stdout, adds CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_ALTERNATE_SCREEN and CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID env vars, corrects the statusline context_window counter, and unblocks 1-hour prompt cache TTL on Bedrock and Vertex.

Stdio MCP non-protocol stdout no longer leaks 10GB+ RSS

Why: A common MCP-author footgun: writing logs or stray output to stdout caused unbounded memory growth in the parent Claude Code process.

What: Fixed unbounded memory growth (10GB+ RSS) when a stdio MCP server writes non-protocol data to stdout.

How: No action — but MCP authors should still log to stderr, not stdout.

MCP tools/list failures now surface clearly in /mcp

Why: Servers that connected but couldn't list tools showed zero tools with no explanation, looking like silent failures.

What: They now retry once and display "connected · tools fetch failed" in /mcp.

How: Run /mcp to see the new badge for any server in this state.

claude.ai MCP unauthorized = "needs auth"; headless stops retrying 4xx

Why: Unauthorized connectors looked like a hard failure, hiding the actual cause; headless mode was burning retries on permanent 4xx.

What: Unauthorized claude.ai MCP connectors now show "needs auth"; headless -p mode no longer retries non-transient 4xx connection failures.

How: No config — the diagnostic just becomes accurate.

CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID in Bash subprocesses

Why: Hooks already received session_id; Bash subprocesses didn't, so external scripts couldn't correlate to the session that invoked them.

What: Added CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID to the Bash tool subprocess env, matching the value passed to hooks.

How: Read $CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID inside any Bash invocation; no config required.

CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_ALTERNATE_SCREEN to keep terminal scrollback

Why: Fullscreen alternate-screen renderer hides the conversation from native terminal scrollback — users want both options.

What: New env var opts out of the fullscreen renderer and keeps the conversation in the terminal's native scrollback.

How: CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_ALTERNATE_SCREEN=1 claude

--permission-mode flag now respected on plan-mode resume

Why: Resuming a plan-mode session with -p --continue silently ignored --permission-mode, leaving users in the wrong mode.

What: Flag is now honored on resume, and plan mode is re-applied after ExitPlanMode within the same session.

How: Set --permission-mode as usual; existing scripts start working again.

/effort picker now reflects CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL

Why: Users setting CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL saw the picker show a different value, hiding their actual config.

What: /effort picker now reflects the env var override.

How: No action — the picker matches your env on next launch.

Statusline context_window shows current, not cumulative

Why: The statusline context_window token count was reflecting cumulative session totals, making the number nearly useless for compaction decisions.

What: Counter now shows current context usage instead of cumulative.

How: No action — restart Claude Code and the statusline reflects current usage.

Slash command autocomplete scales with terminal height

Why: The popup was capped at three to five visible commands; bigger terminals wasted space and required scrolling.

What: Autocomplete popup now scales with terminal height.

How: No config — automatic.

Bedrock/Vertex 1h cache TTL 400 errors fixed

Why: Users on Bedrock or Vertex who opted into 1h cache TTL were hitting hard 400 errors instead of getting cache.

What: Fixed Bedrock and Vertex 400 errors when ENABLE_PROMPT_CACHING_1H is set.

How: No action — re-enable the env var if you'd disabled it as a workaround.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code

• (00:00) - Stdio MCP memory leak fix (10GB+ RSS)

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.129

Claude Code v2.1.129 fixes the 1-hour prompt cache silent downgrade, restores Bash allow-rules for in-project paths, and adds --plugin-url for session-scoped plugin testing — plus new env vars for terminal output, package-manager auto-update, and gateway-model-discovery opt-in.

1-hour prompt cache TTL silent downgrade fixed

Why: Users opting into 1h cache TTL were silently being downgraded to 5min, defeating the cost optimization they paid for.

What: Fixed 1-hour prompt cache TTL being silently downgraded to 5 minutes.

How: No action — verify cache hit logs show 1h TTL on next run.

Bash(mkdir *), Bash(touch *) allow rules now match in-project paths

Why: Allow rules for safe basic commands weren't matching in-project paths, forcing approval prompts for benign operations.

What: Bash(mkdir *), Bash(touch *) and similar allow rules now match in-project paths.

How: No config change — existing rules in permissions.allow start working as intended.

--plugin-url for session-scoped plugin .zip loading

Why: Quick-testing a plugin used to mean cloning the repo or hosting a marketplace; pointing at a hosted .zip is faster.

What: New --plugin-url flag fetches a plugin .zip from any URL and loads it for the current session only.

How: claude --plugin-url https://example.com/my-plugin.zip

Plugin manifest themes/monitors move under "experimental"

Why: These were always experimental; nesting under experimental makes their stability status explicit in the manifest.

What: themes and monitors should now be declared under "experimental": { ... }. Top-level still works but claude plugin validate warns.

How: Move to "experimental": { "themes": [...], "monitors": [...] } in plugin.json.

CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_SYNC_OUTPUT for terminals auto-detection misses

Why: Some terminals like Emacs eat support synchronized output but aren't auto-detected, causing visual flicker.

What: Forces synchronized output on regardless of terminal capability detection.

How: CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_SYNC_OUTPUT=1 claude

CLAUDE_CODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER_AUTO_UPDATE for Homebrew and WinGet

Why: Users on Homebrew or WinGet installs forget to run upgrades; auto-update keeps them current without ceremony.

What: When set, Claude Code runs the package manager's upgrade command in the background and prompts to restart.

How: export CLAUDE_CODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER_AUTO_UPDATE=1 in shell env.

Ctrl+R history picker defaults back to all projects

Why: 2.1.124 narrowed the picker to current project only; users wanted the old all-projects search restored.

What: Ctrl+R now searches prompts across all projects, matching pre-2.1.124 behavior.

How: Press Ctrl+S after opening to narrow to current project or session.

Gateway /v1/models discovery now opt-in

Why: Automatic gateway model discovery in 2.1.126–2.1.128 caused unexpected requests for some third-party deployments.

What: Gateway /v1/models discovery for the /model picker is now opt-in via env var.

How: CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1 to re-enable.

skillOverrides setting now actually works

Why: The setting was registered but had no effect — silent noise in settings.json until now.

What: off hides the skill from model and /, user-invocable-only hides from model only, name-only collapses description.

How: "skillOverrides": { "skill-name": "off|user-invocable-only|name-only" } in settings.json.

/context no longer dumps ASCII visualization into conversation

Why: /context was rendering its ASCII grid into the conversation transcript, wasting ~1.6k tokens per call.

What: Visualization grid is no longer included in the model's view of the conversation.

How: No action required — token waste disappears automatically.

OTel pull_request.count now includes MCP-created PRs

Why: PRs created via MCP tools weren't counted, undercounting team productivity metrics for OTel-instrumented orgs.

What: claude_code.pull_request.count metric now counts PRs/MRs created via MCP tools, not just shell commands.

How: No config change — automatic when OTel telemetry is enabled.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code

• (00:00) - 1-hour prompt cache TTL silent downgrade fixed

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.128

A polish-heavy release with one real data-safety fix. EnterWorktree used to create the new branch from origin/, silently orphaning any unpushed commits — it now branches from local HEAD as documented. /mcp shows the tool count for each connected server and explicitly flags servers that connected with 0 tools (the most common silent MCP failure mode). --plugin-dir accepts .zip archives in addition to directories. --channels now works with API-key console auth, gated behind a new channelsEnabled: true managed setting. Subprocesses (Bash, hooks, MCP, LSP) no longer inherit OTEL_* env vars, so OTel-instrumented apps under the Bash tool stop accidentally sharing Claude Code's collector. MCP workspace is now a reserved server name (breaking — existing servers with that name are skipped with a warning). And SDK hosts receive a persistent localSettings suggestion for Bash permission prompts so "Always allow" persists to .claude/settings.local.json.

EnterWorktree branches from local HEAD

Why: Creating a worktree from origin/ quietly orphaned unpushed commits on your current branch — a silent data-loss path if you launched a worktree mid-session.

What: EnterWorktree now creates the new branch from your local HEAD as documented, so unpushed commits travel with you into the worktree.

How: claude -w feature-branch (or the EnterWorktree tool) — branches off your current local commit, no git stash needed.

/mcp shows tool count + flags 0-tool servers

Why: When an MCP server connected but exposed zero tools (auth scope mismatch, broken tool registration), it looked "fine" in /mcp and silently did nothing — you only noticed when you tried to use it.

What: /mcp now displays the tool count alongside each connected server and explicitly flags servers that connected with 0 tools. Reconnects also stop flooding the conversation with full tool-name lists — re-announces are summarized by server prefix.

How: Run /mcp — the count appears inline; 0-tool servers are highlighted so you can investigate before noticing in production.

MCP: workspace is now a reserved server name

Why: A new built-in workspace MCP capability ships in 2.1.128, and any user-defined server named workspace would silently shadow or conflict with the built-in.

What: workspace is now a reserved MCP server name. Existing servers configured with that name are skipped on startup with a warning, not silently overridden.

How: Check /doctor or /mcp after upgrading; rename any "workspace" entry in your MCP config.

--plugin-dir accepts .zip archives

Why: Sharing or testing a plugin meant unzipping it first and pointing --plugin-dir at the unpacked tree — fine locally, awkward for CI artifacts and review packets.

What: --plugin-dir now accepts .zip plugin archives in addition to directories.

How: claude --plugin-dir ./build/my-plugin.zip — same flag, archives load alongside unpacked dirs.

--channels works with console (API key) auth

Why: Channels research preview previously required Claude.ai authentication, which excluded API-key console orgs running on Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry.

What: --channels now works with API-key console authentication. Console orgs with managed settings opt in via a new channelsEnabled: true managed setting before users can attach channels.

How: As an admin, set channelsEnabled: true in your managed settings.json; users then run claude --channels plugin:@.

Subprocesses no longer inherit OTEL_* env vars

Why: OTel-instrumented apps run via the Bash tool inherited Claude Code's own OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT and friends, so their telemetry got mailed to Claude Code's collector instead of the app's.

What: Bash, hook, MCP, and LSP subprocesses now have OTEL_* env vars stripped from their environment. Claude Code keeps its own telemetry; child processes use whatever they were configured with, or nothing.

How: No action needed. If you intentionally want a subprocess to share Claude Code's OTel config, set the env vars explicitly in your hook or wrapper script.

SDK: persistent localSettings suggestion for Bash prompts

Why: SDK hosts choosing "Always allow" for a Bash command had no canonical place to persist the rule — every host implemented its own local store.

What: SDK hosts now receive a persistent localSettings suggestion for Bash permission prompts. Selecting "Always allow" writes the rule to .claude/settings.local.json, so the next session honors it.

How: Update your SDK host to surface the localSettings suggestion field; "Always allow" then auto-persists the matching Bash(...) rule.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: code.claude.com/docs

• (00:00) - EnterWorktree branches from local HEAD

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.126

A "small unblockings everywhere" release. The headline for platform teams is gateway model discovery — point ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL at any Anthropic-Messages-compatible gateway and the /model picker now populates itself from the gateway's /v1/models endpoint. claude project purge deletes every byte of local state Claude Code stored for a project (transcripts, task lists, debug logs, file-edit history, prompt history, plus the ~/.claude.json entry) in one shot. --dangerously-skip-permissions finally lives up to its name — it now also bypasses prompts for writes to .claude/, .git/, .vscode/, and shell rc files. claude auth login gains a paste-code fallback for environments where the browser callback can't reach localhost (WSL2, SSH, dev containers). Observability: claude_code.skill_activated OTel event now fires for user-typed slash commands, not just model-triggered ones. Host-managed Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry deployments stop auto-disabling analytics — operator settings (DISABLE_TELEMETRY, the non-essential traffic flag) become the single source of truth. And on Windows, Claude Code finds PowerShell 7 installed via the Microsoft Store, an MSI without PATH, or as a .NET global tool, and uses it as the primary shell when the PowerShell tool is enabled.

Gateway model discovery in /model picker

Why: Teams routing through an LLM gateway (LiteLLM, custom proxies) had to add new Claude models manually via ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_*_MODEL env vars every time their gateway exposed one.

What: When ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points at an Anthropic-Messages-compatible gateway, Claude Code calls the gateway's /v1/models at startup and adds entries with IDs starting claude or anthropic to the /model picker, labeled "From gateway".

How: export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://your-gateway/ — discovery is automatic, results cached at ~/.claude/cache/gateway-models.json.

New claude project purge subcommand

Why: "Forget this project" used to mean hand-deleting transcripts, task lists, debug logs, file-edit history, prompt history, and the project's ~/.claude.json entry — easy to miss something, and there was no dry-run preview.

What: claude project purge [path] deletes all local Claude Code state for a project in one shot, with an interactive picker when [path] is omitted.

How: claude project purge ~/work/repo --dry-run to preview; -y to skip confirmation; --all for every project.

--dangerously-skip-permissions covers more paths

Why: Bypass mode used to still prompt on writes to .claude/, .git/, .vscode/, and shell rc files — useful as a safety net, but the friction defeated the point of --dangerously-skip-permissions for teams who genuinely wanted "no prompts ever" automation.

What: Bypass mode now also skips prompts for those previously-protected paths, alongside the carve-outs added in v2.1.121 (.claude/skills/, .claude/agents/, .claude/commands/).

How: claude --dangerously-skip-permissions — no opt-in flag; the change applies to every bypass-mode session. Treat the flag as truly unrestricted now.

OAuth paste-code fallback for claude auth login

Why: Browser callback to Claude Code's localhost listener fails inside WSL2, SSH sessions, and dev containers — login would hang indefinitely.

What: When the callback can't reach localhost, the browser displays a code; claude auth login shows a Paste code here if prompted prompt to accept it.

How: Run claude auth login, complete sign-in in the browser, paste the code shown there into the terminal.

skill_activated OTel event fires for user slash commands

Why: OTel observability for skill invocations only counted model-triggered activations — user-typed /foo slash commands silently bypassed the metric, leaving usage dashboards undercounting real adoption.

What: The claude_code.skill_activated event now fires for both model-side and user-typed slash command invocations, so dashboards see every activation.

How: Existing OTel exporters pick this up automatically; ensure CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TELEMETRY=1 and your OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER is configured.

Host-managed Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry keep analytics on

Why: Previous builds silently auto-disabled analytics for any Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry session, on the assumption that enterprise tenants never want telemetry. That broke org-level usage dashboards for teams who explicitly do want it.

What: Host-managed deployments no longer flip analytics off automatically — the operator's DISABLE_TELEMETRY / CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC settings are now the single source of truth on all three clouds.

How: No action if you want analytics on. To opt out, set DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 (or the per-channel flag) explicitly — auto-disable is no longer doing it for you.

Windows: PowerShell 7 auto-detected, used as primary shell

Why: Windows users with PowerShell 7 installed via the Microsoft Store, an MSI without PATH, or as a .NET global tool had Claude Code silently fall back to Bash, missing PowerShell-specific features and producing weird quoting on Windows-native commands.

What: Claude Code now finds PowerShell 7 in those non-PATH install locations; when the PowerShell tool is enabled, it becomes the primary shell instead of Bash.

How: Install PowerShell 7 via any of the three channels above — no config needed. To gate the shell switch, toggle the PowerShell tool in your project settings.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: code.claude.com/docs

• (00:00) - Gateway model discovery in /model picker

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.122

Polish release with five real wins for advanced users. ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_SERVICE_TIER lets you pick default, flex, or priority on Bedrock — the value flows through as the X-Amzn-Bedrock-Service-Tier header. Pasting a PR URL into /resume now finds the session that created that PR (GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, Bitbucket). /mcp exposes claude.ai connectors hidden by a manually-added MCP server with the same URL — a previously silent failure mode. OpenTelemetry numeric attributes on api_request/api_error now emit as numbers (not strings), and there's a new claude_code.at_mention log event. And images sent to newer models are now resized to the documented 2000px cap, not 2576px.

ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_SERVICE_TIER selects Bedrock service tier

Why: Bedrock customers had no way to opt into the flex or priority service tiers from Claude Code — the tier was effectively pinned to default.

What: Adds ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_SERVICE_TIER env var (values: default, flex, priority); sent as the X-Amzn-Bedrock-Service-Tier header on every Bedrock request.

How: export ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_SERVICE_TIER=priority before launching Claude Code; verify in Bedrock CloudWatch metrics.

/resume PR URL search finds the originating session

Why: Engineers wanted to revisit the Claude Code session that had created a given PR but had to remember the session by approximate date — there was no PR-aware lookup.

What: Pasting a GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, or Bitbucket PR URL into the /resume search box now finds the session that created that PR.

How: Run /resume, paste the PR URL into the search field; the matching session surfaces directly.

/mcp surfaces duplicate connectors hidden by manual servers

Why: A claude.ai connector and a manually-added MCP server pointing at the same upstream URL silently shadowed each other.

What: /mcp now shows claude.ai connectors hidden by a manually-added server with the same URL, with a hint to remove the duplicate.

How: Run /mcp; duplicate connectors are flagged inline — remove the manual server or the connector to resolve.

OpenTelemetry: numeric attributes as numbers, plus at_mention event

Why: Numeric attributes on api_request and api_error log events arrived as strings, breaking downstream OTEL pipelines that expected typed numbers; and @-mention resolution was invisible to telemetry.

What: OpenTelemetry now emits numeric attributes on api_request and api_error events as numbers, and adds a new claude_code.at_mention log event for @-mention resolution.

How: Automatic — your existing OTEL exporter receives correctly-typed numerics and the new event without configuration.

Image resize cap corrected from 2576px to 2000px

Why: Newer-model image inputs were being resized to 2576 pixels per side instead of the documented 2000-pixel maximum.

What: Fixes images sent to newer models being resized to 2576px per side instead of the correct 2000px maximum.

How: Automatic on upgrade — image resize behavior matches the documented 2000px cap.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: code.claude.com/docs

• (00:00) - ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_SERVICE_TIER env var

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.120

Quietly important release. Windows users no longer need Git for Windows just to run Claude Code — when Git Bash is absent, Claude Code falls back to PowerShell. claude ultrareview [target] ships as a non-interactive CLI subcommand for CI pipelines. Skills get a ${CLAUDE_EFFORT} placeholder for effort-aware authoring. AI_AGENT env var attributes subprocess traffic so gh can identify Claude Code as the originator. claude plugin validate accepts $schema, version, and description fields. DISABLE_TELEMETRY and CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC now correctly suppress usage metrics for API and enterprise users. And a critical find FD-exhaustion fix prevents host-wide crashes on macOS/Linux native builds with large directory trees.

Windows: Git for Windows no longer required

Why: Windows users previously had to install Git for Windows just to give Claude Code a POSIX shell — a confusing prerequisite for non-Git workflows.

What: When Git Bash is absent, Claude Code now uses PowerShell as the shell tool, removing the hard Git-for-Windows dependency.

How: Automatic — install Claude Code on Windows; PowerShell takes over if Git Bash isn't found.

claude ultrareview [target] for non-interactive review in CI

Why: /ultrareview was interactive-only — teams couldn't run it from CI scripts or pre-merge hooks without a TTY.

What: Adds claude ultrareview [target] subcommand that runs /ultrareview non-interactively, prints findings to stdout (--json for raw), exits 0 on completion or 1 on failure.

How: claude ultrareview path/to/file --json — drop into your CI step or git pre-push hook.

Skills can reference ${CLAUDE_EFFORT}

Why: Skills were one-size-fits-all — they couldn't adapt their depth or strictness based on the current effort level.

What: Skill content can now reference ${CLAUDE_EFFORT} to branch behavior on the active effort level.

How: Use ${CLAUDE_EFFORT} inline in your SKILL.md content; expands to the current effort level at runtime.

AI_AGENT env var for subprocess attribution

Why: Subprocesses launched by Claude Code (notably gh) couldn't attribute their traffic to the agent, blurring observability and rate-limit accounting.

What: Sets AI_AGENT environment variable for subprocesses so gh and similar tools can identify Claude Code as the originator.

How: Automatic — any subprocess Claude Code spawns inherits AI_AGENT without configuration.

claude plugin validate accepts $schema, version, description

Why: Plugin authors using JSON-schema editors and version-tracked manifests hit validation errors for fields the validator didn't recognize.

What: claude plugin validate now accepts $schema, version, and description at the top level of marketplace.json, plus $schema in plugin.json.

How: Add the fields freely to your manifests; running claude plugin validate passes without spurious errors.

DISABLE_TELEMETRY now suppresses usage metrics

Why: API and enterprise users who set DISABLE_TELEMETRY or CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC still saw usage-metrics calls leaving the host — a compliance gap.

What: Both env vars now correctly suppress usage-metrics telemetry for API and enterprise users, matching documented behavior.

How: Set DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 — usage metrics calls are now blocked, not just telemetry events.

Critical: find no longer exhausts FDs and crashes the host

Why: On macOS/Linux native builds, the Bash tool's embedded find could exhaust open file descriptors on large trees, causing host-wide crashes — not just Claude Code crashes.

What: Reduces peak FD usage during find in the Bash tool on large directory trees, eliminating the crash path.

How: Automatic on upgrade — heavy find operations no longer take down the machine.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: code.claude.com/docs

• (00:00) - Windows: PowerShell fallback removes Git for Windows

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.121

A quietly meaty release. MCP gets two real polish wins (alwaysLoad opt-out of tool-search deferral, transient-error auto-retry up to 3x). Plugin authors get claude plugin prune for orphaned deps. PostToolUse hooks expand to all tools (previously MCP-only). Headless and SDK get CLAUDE_CODE_FORK_SUBAGENT parity and a --dangerously-skip-permissions allowlist for .claude/skills/, agents/, and commands/. /terminal-setup fixes the iTerm2+tmux /copy footgun. Vertex AI gains X.509 Workload Identity Federation; SDK mcp_authenticate gains redirectUri. OTEL spans add stop_reason, finish_reasons, and gated user_system_prompt. Plus scrollable overflow dialogs, /skills type-to-filter, and three serious memory leak fixes that flatten multi-GB session bloat.

MCP alwaysLoad opts out of tool-search deferral

Why: Tool-search deferral keeps MCP tools out of the model's view until needed, but for must-be-available servers that introduces latency and discoverability gaps.

What: Adds an alwaysLoad option to MCP server config; when true, all tools from that server skip tool-search deferral and are always available.

How: Set "alwaysLoad": true on the MCP server entry in your settings JSON.

claude plugin prune for orphaned plugin dependencies

Why: Auto-installed plugin dependencies stayed on disk after their parent plugin was uninstalled, leaving orphaned state that nothing collected.

What: Adds claude plugin prune to remove orphaned auto-installed plugin dependencies; plugin uninstall --prune cascades through dependents.

How: Run claude plugin prune standalone, or pass --prune to claude plugin uninstall.

PostToolUse hooks can replace output for all tools

Why: Hook authors could only mutate tool output for MCP tools — every other tool surface was read-only from a hook's perspective.

What: PostToolUse hooks can now replace tool output for all tools via hookSpecificOutput.updatedToolOutput, not just MCP-originated tools.

How: Set hookSpecificOutput.updatedToolOutput in your hook return; works for any tool that fires PostToolUse.

CLAUDE_CODE_FORK_SUBAGENT works in non-interactive sessions

Why: Forked subagents shipped for interactive use but were silently ignored under claude --print and the SDK, blocking automation pipelines.

What: Enables CLAUDE_CODE_FORK_SUBAGENT=1 for SDK and claude -p non-interactive sessions, matching interactive-mode behavior.

How: export CLAUDE_CODE_FORK_SUBAGENT=1 before launching claude -p or your SDK process.

--dangerously-skip-permissions allowlist for .claude/{skills,agents,commands}

Why: Even with the dangerous flag, writes to common authoring directories prompted, slowing skill/agent/command iteration loops.

What: --dangerously-skip-permissions no longer prompts for writes to .claude/skills/, .claude/agents/, and .claude/commands/.

How: Run claude --dangerously-skip-permissions as before; writes to those three directories now fall through silently.

/terminal-setup enables iTerm2 clipboard for /copy (including tmux)

Why: /copy from inside tmux on iTerm2 silently failed because iTerm2's "Applications in terminal may access clipboard" setting was off by default.

What: /terminal-setup now enables iTerm2's "Applications in terminal may access clipboard" setting, so /copy works including from tmux.

How: Run /terminal-setup once on iTerm2; /copy then works through tmux without manual iTerm2 settings changes.

MCP servers auto-retry transient startup errors up to 3 times

Why: A flaky MCP server hitting a transient error during startup left the connection permanently dead until the user manually reconnected.

What: MCP servers that hit a transient error during startup now auto-retry up to 3 times before staying disconnected.

How: Automatic — no config; flaky servers self-heal up to 3 attempts before surfacing.

Vertex AI X.509 Workload Identity Federation (mTLS ADC)

Why: Enterprises on Vertex AI standardized on certificate-based Workload Identity Federation but Claude Code only accepted service account keys or OAuth tokens.

What: Adds support for X.509 certificate-based Workload Identity Federation (mTLS Application Default Credentials) on Vertex AI.

How: Configure Vertex Workload Identity Federation with X.509 certs in your gcloud ADC; Claude Code picks them up automatically.

SDK mcp_authenticate redirectUri + OpenTelemetry enrichments

Why: Claude.ai connectors and custom-scheme OAuth flows had no way to specify their redirect URI, and OTEL spans lacked stop_reason and full prompt context.

What: SDK mcp_authenticate now supports redirectUri for custom-scheme completion and claude.ai connectors; OTEL adds stop_reason, gen_ai.response.finish_reasons, and user_system_prompt (gated by OTEL_LOG_USER_PROMPTS) to LLM request spans.

How: Pass redirectUri to mcp_authenticate; set OTEL_LOG_USER_PROMPTS=1 to opt into user-prompt span attributes.

Scrollable overflow dialogs + /skills type-to-filter

Why: Dialogs taller than the terminal viewport had unreachable rows, and /skills lists scrolled off-screen with no way to jump to a specific skill.

What: Dialogs that overflow the terminal are now scrollable with arrow keys, PgUp/PgDn, home/end, and mouse wheel in both fullscreen and non-fullscreen; /skills gains a type-to-filter search box.

How: Automatic — overflow dialogs accept the standard navigation keys; /skills filter activates when you start typing.

Memory leak fixes that ship with the release

Why: Long-running sessions leaked multi-GB of RSS through several distinct paths — image processing, /usage with large transcript histories, and stalled progress events on long-running tools.

What: Fixes unbounded memory growth when processing many images, /usage leaking up to ~2GB on machines with large transcript histories, and a memory leak when long-running tools fail to emit a clear progress event.

How: Automatic on upgrade; long-running sessions stop accumulating ghost memory.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: code.claude.com/docs

• (00:00) - MCP polish: alwaysLoad + transient retry

Claude Platform — April 23, 2026

Memory for Claude Managed Agents lands in public beta under the standard managed-agents-2026-04-01 header. Memory stores are workspace-scoped collections of text documents that mount into agent sessions at /mnt/memory/ — the agent reads and writes them with the same file tools it uses for the rest of the filesystem. Every change creates an immutable memory version (audit trail + point-in-time recovery), and a redact endpoint scrubs content out of historical versions for compliance workflows. Read-only mounts matter for security: prompt injection on a read-write store can poison later sessions.

Memory for Claude Managed Agents — public beta

Why: Each Managed Agents session started with a fresh context, so user preferences, project conventions, prior mistakes, and domain knowledge were lost when the session ended.

What: Releases public-beta memory stores for Managed Agents — workspace-scoped collections of text documents the agent reads and writes via filesystem tools, mounted under /mnt/memory/.

How: Beta header managed-agents-2026-04-01; POST /v1/memory_stores to create, then attach via the session's resources[] with type: memory_store and access: read_write or read_only.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Platform release notes.

Full release notes: platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/api

Memory docs: platform.claude.com/docs/en/managed-agents/memory

Claude Platform — April 24, 2026

The Rate Limits API lands in the Admin API. It returns the rate limits configured for your organization and per-workspace overrides — grouped by limiter type (model_group, batch, token_count, files, skills, web_search). Useful for keeping gateways and proxies in sync, powering internal alerting against the Usage and Cost API, and auditing workspace configuration. Read-only — Console is still where you configure overrides.

Rate Limits API in the Admin API

Why: Gateways, proxies, and internal alerting tools had to hardcode rate-limit values that drifted when Anthropic adjusted them, with no programmatic way to read current org and workspace limits.

What: Releases the Rate Limits API — a new Admin API endpoint returning configured rate limits for the organization and each workspace, grouped by limiter type.

How: GET /v1/organizations/rate_limits with an Admin API key (sk-ant-admin...); per-workspace via /v1/organizations/workspaces/{workspace_id}/rate_limits.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Platform release notes.

Full release notes: platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/api

Rate Limits API docs: platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/rate-limits-api

What's new in Claude Code v2.1.119

A shorter list than recent releases but with quietly significant changes. /config settings finally persist to ~/.claude/settings.json and participate in the override chain. --from-pr and the owner/repo#N shorthand now support GitLab, Bitbucket, GitHub Enterprise, and your git remote's host — first-class non-GitHub support. --print and --agent modes now honor agent frontmatter consistently with interactive. PowerShell tool gains Bash-parity auto-approval. Hooks gain duration_ms. Plus plugin auto-update smarts, a Vim Esc fix, OTEL/status-line enrichments, and a Vertex AI tool-search default change.

/config settings now persist to settings.json with the full override chain

Why: Runtime UI settings like theme, editor mode, and verbose changed with /config didn't survive restarts, and their place in the project/local/policy override precedence was murky.

What: Persists /config settings to ~/.claude/settings.json and participates in project/local/policy override precedence.

How: Automatic — change /config, your choice now sticks and respects higher-scope overrides.

Non-GitHub Git support in --from-pr and owner/repo#N shorthand

Why: Teams on GitLab, Bitbucket, GitHub Enterprise, or self-hosted Git were locked out of --from-pr review and had owner/repo#N links always point to github.com.

What: --from-pr now accepts GitLab merge-request, Bitbucket pull-request, and GitHub Enterprise PR URLs; owner/repo#N shorthand now uses your git remote's host.

How: claude --from-pr ; inline owner/repo#123 resolves to your origin's host automatically.

New UI chrome settings: prUrlTemplate and CLAUDE_CODE_HIDE_CWD

Why: The footer PR badge hard-coded github.com, and the startup logo always showed the working directory — awkward in demos or when recording.

What: Adds prUrlTemplate setting to point the footer PR badge at a custom code-review URL, and CLAUDE_CODE_HIDE_CWD env var to hide the working directory in the startup logo.

How: Set prUrlTemplate in settings.json; export CLAUDE_CODE_HIDE_CWD=1 in your shell.

--print honors agent tools/disallowedTools; --agent honors permissionMode; PowerShell auto-approve

Why: Headless --print mode ignored the agent's tool restrictions, --agent didn't respect the agent's permissionMode, and PowerShell users still hit prompts that Bash had learned to skip.

What: --print mode honors agent tools:/disallowedTools:; --agent honors the agent's permissionMode for built-in agents; PowerShell tool commands can be auto-approved in permission mode (Bash parity).

How: Automatic for --print and --agent; configure PowerShell allow-rules in .claude/settings.json permissions.

Hooks: PostToolUse and PostToolUseFailure include duration_ms

Why: Hook-based observability pipelines had no signal for tool execution time — only that the tool ran.

What: PostToolUse and PostToolUseFailure hook inputs now include duration_ms, measuring tool execution time excluding permission prompts and PreToolUse hooks.

How: Read duration_ms from your hook's stdin JSON; already populated in 2.1.119.

Plugin auto-update respects version constraints + parallel MCP reconfig

Why: A plugin pinned by another plugin's version constraint was stuck at its old version, and subagent/SDK MCP server reconfiguration connected servers serially, slowing startup.

What: Plugins pinned by another plugin's version constraint now auto-update to the highest satisfying git tag; subagent and SDK MCP server reconfiguration now connects servers in parallel.

How: Automatic — auto-update picks the best satisfying tag and MCP reconnects faster across subagent spawns.

Vim: Esc in INSERT no longer pulls queued messages back

Why: Vim users hitting Esc to leave INSERT had a queued message unexpectedly reappear in the input, breaking the mental model.

What: Esc in INSERT mode no longer pulls a queued message back into the input; press Esc again to interrupt.

How: Enable vim mode and press Esc as usual; behavior now matches expectations.

Security: blockedMarketplaces enforces hostPattern/pathPattern + telemetry enrichments

Why: Managed-settings blockedMarketplaces documented hostPattern/pathPattern but didn't enforce them, and OTEL events couldn't be correlated across tool_result/tool_decision without manually threading tool_use_id.

What: blockedMarketplaces now enforces hostPattern and pathPattern; OTEL tool_result/tool_decision include tool_use_id; tool_result also includes tool_input_size_bytes; status-line stdin JSON includes effort.level and thinking.enabled.

How: Existing policy and telemetry pipelines now receive the new fields and enforcement automatically.

Tool search disabled by default on Vertex AI

Why: Vertex AI returned an unsupported beta header error whenever Claude Code tried to enable the tool search tool by default.

What: Disables tool search by default on Vertex AI to avoid the unsupported-beta-header error; opt in explicitly via ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH.

How: export ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH=1 on Vertex AI to turn it back on.

Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Code CHANGELOG.

Full changelog: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/CHANGELOG.md

Claude Code docs: code.claude.com/docs

• (00:00) - /config now persists to settings.json