← Claude Code changelog

Claude Code 2.1.236

This release introduces exciting new capabilities, including cross-session idle notifications, allowing one session to signal another when it next goes idle, and a new environment variable for setting your default model. A major focus was on stability and reliability, with critical fixes addressing sessions breaking after their working directory was removed, permanent fullscreen renderer failures, and various UI glitches. Significant improvements to auto mode's accuracy and consistency, faster startup times, and enhanced slash-command error handling ensure a more robust and responsive experience for all users, alongside new screen reader support for the transcript in VS Code.

Added

  • Added `ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_MODEL` environment variable: sets the model new sessions start on, while a `/model` pick still overrides it and persists across restarts (unlike `ANTHROPIC_MODEL`)
  • Added `notify_when_idle` to cross-session `SendMessage`: ask another Claude Code session on this machine to send one notice when it next goes idle — opt-in, one-shot, no polling (macOS and Linux)
  • Added screen reader support for the transcript: live announcements for replies, permission requests, errors, and status changes, plus per-turn heading navigation

Improved

  • Improved startup performance: the session counter is now written in the background
  • Improved auto mode: `Monitor` allow rules are now set aside while auto mode is active, so Monitor commands are reviewed the same way Bash commands are
  • Improved auto mode on Bedrock, Vertex AI, and Foundry, and when telemetry is disabled: the classifier now uses the same defaults as on the Claude API, including severity-scored classification
  • Improved auto mode: the git status check can no longer be fooled by a repo's `status.showUntrackedFiles=no` setting into reporting a clean tree

Changed

  • Sandbox: on macOS, wildcard read-deny rules (e.g. `**/.env`) now take precedence inside allowed read regions, cover matched directories' contents, and can't be bypassed by renaming the denied file
  • Changed the `/model` picker to highlight only the newest model's name, so the highlight marks the new release rather than an arbitrary subset of the list
  • `/goal`: an idle session whose goal is parked behind long-running background work now checks in automatically after 30 minutes (then 1h, 2h) instead of waiting for you to return
  • `/usage` now shows the usage-credits spend row for Team and Enterprise members, and shows a capped row at 0% before anything is spent
  • SIGTERM in print/SDK mode no longer records an interrupted turn or synthetic tool denials before exiting; running commands are still terminated and the process still exits with code 143
  • Pressing Enter on a slash-command typo or a command unavailable in this session now reports it instead of running the closest fuzzy match; prefixes and aliases still run
  • Remote Control now marks a session offline within seconds when the CLI exits or its terminal closes
  • `SendMessage` now refuses further messages to a session up front once a rapid burst would exceed what that session's inbox accepts, instead of reporting them sent while they were dropped
  • Aligned the session title chip on the prompt border with the footer's right edge
  • Right-aligned footer items (goal indicator, session state, background agent status) and truncated notices now share a consistent right margin with the rest of the prompt area

Fixed

  • Fixed clipboard copy, background housekeeping, background sessions, and local MCP logs breaking after the directory a session had switched into was removed (since 2.1.229)
  • Fixed the fullscreen renderer failing permanently after a single failed start: it now falls back to the classic renderer instead of exiting on every subsequent launch
  • Fixed the `/model` picker rendering taller than the terminal: it now shows only as many models as fit the window, with the rest reachable by scrolling
  • Fixed `SendMessage` calls being rejected when a malformed closing tag left the message text inside the summary field
  • Fixed unhandled promise rejections when a subprocess fails to start, for example `powershell.exe` on WSL with Windows interop disabled (regression in 2.1.234)
  • Fixed fullscreen mode sometimes not showing a newly sent message until the next update after the terminal was resized
  • Fixed a blank band that could remain above the prompt after clearing a multi-line prompt, and panes not repainting after resizing the terminal away and back, in fullscreen mode
  • Fixed the managed-settings approval prompt sometimes not appearing at startup while still capturing the first keypress as approval
  • Fixed terminal tab titles jumping in tmux (iTerm tmux integration): the title is now written only when its text changes instead of animating every 960ms
  • Fixed an unclear error when the cloud environments list came back empty or malformed
  • Fixed the Fable 5 first-time usage-credits prompt auto-selecting the fallback model after 60 seconds with no answer when using Remote Control
  • Fixed spinner tips never appearing, with a repeated background error, when the cached guest-pass reward in `~/.claude.json` was malformed
  • Fixed skills hot-reload in SDK/VS Code sessions raising an error on every skills change after the session's working directory was deleted (2.1.229+)
  • Fixed self-hosted runner sessions released on idle, retire, or startup timeout occasionally resuming on another runner before the post-session hook had finished
  • Fixed the Clawd mascot's eyes and feet rendering unevenly in iTerm2 at some font sizes
  • Fixed occasional runaway session recaps: recap text (automatic and `/recap`) is now capped at 400 characters, cut at a word boundary