Claude Code v2.1.129 Release Notes

Claude Code v2.1.129 is here with significant enhancements for plugin management, terminal compatibility, and user experience improvements. This release focuses on making Claude Code more flexible and reliable for power users across different environments.

What’s New

Plugin Management Enhancements

URL Plugin Fetching: Added --plugin-url <url> flag to fetch plugin .zip archives directly from URLs for the current session, making plugin distribution and testing much easier
Plugin Manifest Updates: Themes and monitors should now be declared under "experimental": { ... } in plugin manifests. Legacy top-level declarations still work but will trigger warnings in claude plugin validate

Auto-Update and Terminal Compatibility

Background Auto-Updates: New CLAUDE_CODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER_AUTO_UPDATE environment variable enables automatic background upgrades for Homebrew and WinGet installations with restart prompts
Synchronized Output Control: Added CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_SYNC_OUTPUT=1 environment variable to force-enable synchronized output on terminals where auto-detection fails (like Emacs eat)

Enhanced History Search: Ctrl+R history picker now defaults to searching all prompts across all projects, returning to pre-2.1.124 behavior. Use Ctrl+S to narrow searches to current project or session
Agent Navigation: Fixed /agents Library list arrow-key navigation to keep highlighted agents visible when lists exceed viewport

Configuration and Discovery

Gateway Model Discovery: /v1/models discovery for the /model picker is now opt-in via CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1 environment variable
Skill Overrides: The skillOverrides setting now works properly with options: off (hides from model and /), user-invocable-only (hides from model only), name-only (collapses description)

Bug Fixes and Polish

Fixed /clear not resetting terminal tab titles after conversations
Fixed session title chips disappearing during active permission dialogs
Fixed agent panel visibility issues when subagents are running
Fixed external-editor handoff (Ctrl+G) clearing conversation history
Fixed /context token waste by preventing ASCII visualization from entering conversations
Resolved OAuth refresh race conditions after system wake
Fixed prompt cache TTL issues and spurious cache-miss warnings
Improved error handling for API responses and policy refusals

Third-Party Deployment Improvements

Third-party deployments (Bedrock, Vertex, Foundry) no longer show Anthropic-specific spinner tips
Enhanced telemetry with claude_code.pull_request.count OTel metric for MCP tool usage
Better support for enterprise/team users with OAuth scope improvements

How to Update

Update Claude Code to v2.1.129 using your preferred method:

Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew upgrade claude-code

WinGet (Windows):

winget upgrade anthropic.claude-code

Direct Download: Visit the GitHub releases page to download the latest version for your platform.