This release brings significant workflow enhancements with background subagent operation now a default feature, providing notifications upon task completion and enabling uninterrupted main session work. A new data visualization skill offers design guidance and a color-palette validator, while in-browser functionality is now generally available. Users will experience improved reliability across the platform, including automatic retries for transient network errors, streamlined agent team interactions, and enhanced login stability for various cloud platforms.
Added2
- Added background agent notifications in `claude agents` — sessions that need input or finish now fire the `Notification` hook (`agent_needs_input` / `agent_completed`)
- Added `/dataviz` skill for chart and dashboard design guidance with a runnable color-palette validator
Improved3
- Improved focus mode: subagents launched in a turn now appear in its activity summary, and completed background notifications fold into a single count
- Improved syntax highlighting accuracy in code blocks, diffs, and file previews by upgrading to highlight.js 11
- Improved API retry UX: the error reason is now shown after the second attempt, and a status page link replaces the spinner tip when the API is overloaded
Changed9
- Subagents now run in the background by default, so Claude keeps working while they run and is notified when they finish (previously a gradual rollout)
- Claude in Chrome is now generally available
- Gateway: added Claude Platform on AWS (anthropicAws) as an upstream provider; model-not-found responses now advance the failover chain
- Background agents launched from `claude agents` now commit, push, and open a draft PR when they finish code work in a worktree, instead of stopping to ask
- The built-in Explore agent now inherits the main session's model (capped at opus) instead of running on haiku
- Subagents and context compaction now inherit the session's extended thinking configuration, improving output quality on delegated tasks
- Keyboard shortcut hints now show opt/cmd instead of alt/super when connected from a Mac over SSH
- `/login` now opens the sign-in dialog from the `claude agents` view instead of saying it isn't available
- Subagents now treat messages from the agent that launched them as normal task direction; an agent's message is still never treated as the user's approval
Fixed18
- Fixed brief network drops mid-response aborting the turn — transient errors like ECONNRESET now retry with backoff instead of failing
- Fixed excessive background classifier requests when sandboxed processes repeatedly accessed the same network host
- Fixed background tasks in web, desktop, and VS Code task panels getting stuck on "Running" after they finish or after resuming a session
- Fixed agent teams: a teammate that dies on an API error now reports "failed" to the lead, and messaging a stuck teammate wakes it to retry immediately
- Fixed the `/diff` panel not refreshing when you switch branches or commit outside the session
- Fixed markdown tables overflowing and wrapping their right border when rendered in fullscreen mode
- Fixed Claude Platform on AWS and Mantle sessions dead-ending with "Please run /login" when the STS token expires — `awsAuthRefresh` now runs automatically
- Fixed "no route to host" for local-network hosts in macOS background agent sessions by declaring Local Network entitlements
- Fixed `/desktop` failing with "Cannot determine working directory" after entering and exiting a worktree
- Fixed background agents repeatedly showing "Reconnecting…" every ~52 seconds on macOS while the agents view was open
- Fixed pressing `←` inside `claude attach <id>` exiting to the shell instead of opening the agent view
- Fixed `claude --bg` silently creating an unattachable session when combined with `--print`/`-p`; the conflicting flags are now rejected up front
- Fixed the workflow progress view dropping the earliest agents from the list while the phase counter stayed correct in SDK and desktop-app sessions
- Fixed `.claude/rules/` conditional rules not loading when the target file is reached via a symlinked path
- Fixed Cmd+click not opening URLs in fullscreen mode in Warp on macOS
- Fixed double-click word selection in fullscreen mode to select the entire URL including the scheme
- Fixed plan mode not auto-allowing read-only tool calls when a session starts in plan mode
- Fixed `/branch` deriving its default fork name from the compaction summary instead of the first real prompt
Removed1
- Removed the `/agents` wizard; ask Claude to create or manage subagents, or edit `.claude/agents/` directly
Earlier 2.1.198 release · July 1, 2026
Added2
- Added background agent notifications in `claude agents` — sessions that need input or finish now fire the `Notification` hook (`agent_needs_input` / `agent_completed`)
- Added `/dataviz` skill for chart and dashboard design guidance with a runnable color-palette validator
Improved3
- Improved focus mode: subagents launched in a turn now appear in its activity summary, and completed background notifications fold into a single count
- Improved syntax highlighting accuracy in code blocks, diffs, and file previews by upgrading to highlight.js 11
- Improved API retry UX: the error reason is now shown after the second attempt, and a status page link replaces the spinner tip when the API is overloaded
Changed8
- Claude in Chrome is now generally available
- Gateway: added Claude Platform on AWS (anthropicAws) as an upstream provider; model-not-found responses now advance the failover chain
- Background agents launched from `claude agents` now commit, push, and open a draft PR when they finish code work in a worktree, instead of stopping to ask
- The built-in Explore agent now inherits the main session's model (capped at opus) instead of running on haiku
- Subagents and context compaction now inherit the session's extended thinking configuration, improving output quality on delegated tasks
- Keyboard shortcut hints now show opt/cmd instead of alt/super when connected from a Mac over SSH
- `/login` now opens the sign-in dialog from the `claude agents` view instead of saying it isn't available
- Subagents now treat messages from the agent that launched them as normal task direction; an agent's message is still never treated as the user's approval
Fixed18
- Fixed brief network drops mid-response aborting the turn — transient errors like ECONNRESET now retry with backoff instead of failing
- Fixed excessive background classifier requests when sandboxed processes repeatedly accessed the same network host
- Fixed background tasks in web, desktop, and VS Code task panels getting stuck on "Running" after they finish or after resuming a session
- Fixed agent teams: a teammate that dies on an API error now reports "failed" to the lead, and messaging a stuck teammate wakes it to retry immediately
- Fixed the `/diff` panel not refreshing when you switch branches or commit outside the session
- Fixed markdown tables overflowing and wrapping their right border when rendered in fullscreen mode
- Fixed Claude Platform on AWS and Mantle sessions dead-ending with "Please run /login" when the STS token expires — `awsAuthRefresh` now runs automatically
- Fixed "no route to host" for local-network hosts in macOS background agent sessions by declaring Local Network entitlements
- Fixed `/desktop` failing with "Cannot determine working directory" after entering and exiting a worktree
- Fixed background agents repeatedly showing "Reconnecting…" every ~52 seconds on macOS while the agents view was open
- Fixed pressing `←` inside `claude attach <id>` exiting to the shell instead of opening the agent view
- Fixed `claude --bg` silently creating an unattachable session when combined with `--print`/`-p`; the conflicting flags are now rejected up front
- Fixed the workflow progress view dropping the earliest agents from the list while the phase counter stayed correct in SDK and desktop-app sessions
- Fixed `.claude/rules/` conditional rules not loading when the target file is reached via a symlinked path
- Fixed Cmd+click not opening URLs in fullscreen mode in Warp on macOS
- Fixed double-click word selection in fullscreen mode to select the entire URL including the scheme
- Fixed plan mode not auto-allowing read-only tool calls when a session starts in plan mode
- Fixed `/branch` deriving its default fork name from the compaction summary instead of the first real prompt
Removed1
- Removed the `/agents` wizard; ask Claude to create or manage subagents, or edit `.claude/agents/` directly
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