Claude Code 2.1.261

Changelog: v2.1.261

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