Claude Code v2.1.45 Release Notes

The Claude Code development team has released version 2.1.45, bringing significant improvements to the AI-powered development environment. This update focuses on expanding model support, enhancing plugin functionality, and resolving critical issues that were affecting productivity for power users.

What’s New

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Support

The highlight of this release is native support for Claude Sonnet 4.6, giving developers access to the latest AI capabilities directly within their Claude Code workflows. This integration maintains full compatibility with existing projects while unlocking enhanced reasoning and code generation features.

Enhanced Plugin Management

Plugin developers and users will appreciate the new dynamic plugin loading system. Previously, installing new plugins required a complete restart to access commands, agents, and hooks. This friction has been eliminated—plugins are now available immediately after installation.

Additionally, Claude Code now reads enabledPlugins and extraKnownMarketplaces configuration from --add-dir directories, providing more flexible plugin management across different project contexts.

Customizable Spinner Tips

A new spinnerTipsOverride setting allows you to personalize the loading experience. Configure custom tip strings in the tips array, and optionally set excludeDefault: true to display only your custom messages instead of the built-in ones.

SDK Rate Limit Monitoring

Developers building on Claude Code can now access real-time rate limit information through new SDKRateLimitInfo and SDKRateLimitEvent types. This enables better handling of API usage, including utilization tracking, reset times, and overage notifications.

Critical Bug Fixes

Agent Teams on cloud providers: Fixed teammates failing on Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry by properly propagating API provider environment variables
macOS sandbox permissions: Resolved “operation not permitted” errors when writing temporary files by using the correct per-user temp directory
Task tool stability: Fixed backgrounded agents crashing with ReferenceError on completion
Autocomplete with images: Enter key now properly accepts suggestions when images are present in input
Session context cleanup: Fixed skills from subagents incorrectly persisting in main session after compaction

Performance Improvements

Faster startup: Removed eager loading of session history for stats caching
Memory optimization: Shell commands with large output no longer cause unbounded RSS growth
Better visual feedback: Collapsed read/search groups now show current file or search pattern during processing
VSCode integration: Permission destination choices now persist across sessions

Maintenance Updates

The release also addresses the accumulation of .claude.json.backup files that were being created on every startup, keeping your project directories cleaner.

How to Update

To upgrade to Claude Code v2.1.45:

# Update via your package manager
npm update -g claude-code

# Or download directly
curl -sSL https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash

Existing configurations and plugins will be automatically migrated. We recommend backing up your .claude directory before updating, though the new backup file management should prevent clutter.