anthropics/claude-code v2.1.261 on GitHub

What's changed

Added an "Organization policy" line to /status and claude doctor that says why your organization's policy could not be loaded, such as a proxy not passing the endpoint through
Added bashOutputMaxChars and taskOutputMaxChars settings to raise how much command and background-task output Claude receives inline before it is saved to a file, up to 128K characters
Added --append-subagent-system-prompt-file to read the subagent system prompt from a file, for prompts too large to pass on the command line
Added /skill-doctor to show which loaded skills go unused and what they cost in context, so you can prune them
Fixed typed or pasted characters occasionally landing out of order or being dropped during fast input or key repeat
Fixed /add-dir <subdirectory> printing a false "couldn't be resolved" error when the working directory is on a /net automount
Fixed the Bedrock setup wizard hanging when AWS or an AWS credential helper never responds (it now times out with a clear error), and its model checks failing behind a TLS-inspecting proxy
Fixed cloud sessions discarding a plugin synced from claude.ai when managed settings force-enable it in enabledPlugins, then falling back to a marketplace clone that could fail
Fixed being unable to delete the character immediately before an inline [Image #N] chip in the prompt input
Fixed resuming a session losing hook output and other context around parallel tool calls, which changed the resumed request
Fixed Remote Control showing a stale permission mode when a phone, browser, or claude.ai app attaches to a terminal session or after the mode changes in the terminal
Fixed Remote Control sessions showing as still working (stuck spinner and Stop button) after stopping a turn from a connected phone or browser, or after a local slash command like /clear
Fixed SDK and cloud sessions ignoring a Stop or interrupt sent just after the first prompt, before the turn had started; the turn now stops instead of running to completion
Fixed Remote Control uploading a session pulled with /teleport into the connected session, which appeared appended to the original on phone and web
Fixed Remote Control's inbound event stream failing behind TLS-inspecting corporate proxies on native Windows
Fixed Remote Control sessions showing the default effort level on claude.ai when the effort comes from settings
Fixed gcpAuthRefresh opening a browser at startup when the Google credential check was slow, even though the credential was still valid
Fixed claude.ai connectors staying absent for the whole session when the startup connector fetch timed out — the CLI now retries in the background
Fixed sustained high CPU usage when a background agent could not be resumed and its wake-up was retried in a tight loop
Fixed feature flags gated to a newer version occasionally applying to an older Claude Code version running on the same machine
Fixed /usage and the VS Code usage panel dropping a model-specific weekly limit row when the usage endpoint is rate limited or when opened right after startup
Fixed claude -p --resume <file> adopting a malformed session ID recorded in the transcript; it now resumes under a fresh session ID instead
Fixed the terminal progress indicator (iTerm2, Ghostty, ConEmu) showing the session as finished while a background workflow or agent was still running
Fixed a rare layout glitch where a box could render with the wrong height after its container switched between row and column direction
Fixed Claude apps gateway client IP when a trusted proxy appends a port to X-Forwarded-For; with an access list set, an unreadable entry now gets 403
Fixed Claude apps gateway telling Claude Desktop to export OpenTelemetry as JSON even when the terminal CLI uses protobuf, so protobuf-only collectors rejected Desktop's data
Fixed Desktop and web showing a session as busy while it only watches an artifact for updates
Fixed Claude in Chrome file_upload failing with "paths: expected array, received undefined" in local Cowork sessions run from the Claude Desktop app
Fixed SendMessage to an offline Remote Control session on another machine reading as delivered; the result now says delivery is queued until that machine reconnects
Fixed plugin install hints from CLIs run in background Bash commands: they are now detected, and the raw <claude-code-hint> tag no longer leaks into the conversation
Fixed in-process agent-team teammates re-sending their first-turn tool and skill announcements on the second turn, which changed the request prefix and missed the prompt cache
Improved the /model picker and the VS Code model pill to show a model's name instead of its raw Bedrock, Vertex AI, or LLM gateway ID when Claude Code recognizes it
Improved startup on Google Vertex AI when GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS is set: API client creation no longer re-runs Google Cloud project discovery or spawns extra gcloud processes
Improved streaming performance: already-rendered blocks are no longer re-checked by layout on each update
Improved the dangerous-rm safety prompt to also catch rm -rf on positional parameters and inside double-quoted sh -c scripts
Improved handling when the API sends no response headers: the retry now waits up to API_TIMEOUT_MS (10 minutes by default) instead of another 3 minutes, and the messages say what to change
Changed a Claude apps gateway 403 on the managed settings load (at startup or after /login) to say Claude Code may not be enabled for the organization, instead of advising a new sign-in
Changed machines whose managed settings pin forceLoginMethod: "gateway" to ignore a leftover API key or claude.ai login and ask for /login; Bedrock, Vertex AI, and Foundry sessions are unaffected
Changed auto mode to treat a link that packs content into a public diagram renderer's URL as an upload to that site: no longer auto-approved unless you asked for it
Changed the prompt's word-editing keys to match Bash: Ctrl+W deletes back to whitespace, Alt+F and Alt+D stop at word end, punctuation separates words; keybindingFlavor no longer has any effect
Changed /context token counting to use a local estimate when the token-counting API is unavailable, instead of extra small-model requests
[VSCode] Added a "Build a custom style" walkthrough to the Output styles menu that writes a custom output style file and lists it right away
[VSCode] Added an Add server form and a Remove action to the MCP servers dialog, so MCP servers can be added and removed without leaving the IDE
[VSCode] Added a hollow ring in the session list for sessions open in a terminal, another VS Code window, or Claude Desktop, so they no longer look closed
[VSCode] Added a fold button to permission and question prompts so the conversation behind them can be read without dismissing them; the space beside the prompt now scrolls the conversation
[VSCode] Added "Archive session" to the session list's right-click menu and gave Unarchive its own icon
[VSCode] Fixed a session teleported from Claude Code on the web treating a question that was cut off when the cloud session shut down as declined
[VSCode] Fixed the session tab's Rename box opening empty for a tab restored with the window; it now starts with the current name
[VSCode] Fixed collapsed sections in the session list panel briefly showing expanded each time the panel loaded
[VSCode] Fixed Focus view showing a tool call as still running after Claude had moved on, such as while a question waited for your answer
[VSCode] Fixed the session list's active-row highlight going stale when an unfocused Claude tab's session ID is corrected
[VSCode] Fixed Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+T reopen and deep-link opens placing the Claude tab outside the Claude editor group when a Claude tab has focus
[VSCode] Fixed the session tab's "Add to group" putting a session opened from Claude Code on the Web in two groups; it now moves the entry the session list shows
[VSCode] Fixed the model picker showing models an organization has since disabled until the window was reloaded twice
[VSCode] Fixed a tab opened from the session list jumping back to that session, and a tab opened from a Web session restarting its teleport or staying empty, after VS Code reloads the tab's view
[VSCode] Fixed /btw side-question history from earlier sessions being overwritten when a question is asked right after a window reload or while a settings file has errors
[VSCode] Fixed the pending question card not reappearing after the Claude panel reloads when signed in with a Claude.ai or Console account
[VSCode] Fixed claude.ai-only features staying visible in a window's other Claude panels after one panel picked up a third-party provider from a settings file
[VSCode] Fixed the sign-in screen appearing despite the Disable Login Prompt setting when Claude Code reports no login or a request fails for lack of one
[VSCode] Fixed the next queued permission prompt keeping text typed on the previous prompt and accepting an immediate second click
[VSCode] Fixed install-plugin links opening the Claude sidebar without the install dialog in a window where only the session list had been shown
[VSCode] Fixed the sidebar usage meter staying empty on a new window until the Account & usage dialog was opened, and a 0% usage limit being left out of the meter
[VSCode] Fixed "Start new session in this group" losing the group after New conversation, and a missing unread dot for a session that finished before the sidebar's unread list loaded
[VSCode] Fixed the editor tab badge showing unread during a running turn or missing on a tab opened from the session list, and "Add Session Tab to Group" doing nothing for an archived session
[VSCode] Fixed "Enable Remote Control for all sessions" so flipping it also applies right away to sessions open in other VS Code windows
[VSCode] Fixed the session list's Open filter for sessions continued from claude.ai whose tab was still recorded under the web session, and labeled the filter menu's sections for screen readers
[VSCode] Changed the model picker to one flat list of every model, with rows kept for older model spellings listed last