Claude Code v2.1.49: Enhanced Performance and Better Plugin Management

Claude Code v2.1.49 is now available with a comprehensive set of improvements focused on performance optimization, better user experience, and enhanced enterprise features. This release addresses several critical issues while introducing new capabilities that make Claude Code more responsive and reliable.

What’s New

Improved Interrupt Handling

A major fix addresses the frustrating issue where Ctrl+C and ESC were silently ignored when background agents were running. Now, pressing either key twice within 3 seconds will properly kill all background agents, giving you better control over long-running processes.

Enhanced Simple Mode

Simple mode (CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE) has been expanded to include the file edit tool alongside the existing Bash tool. This means you can now perform direct file editing operations even in simple mode, making it more versatile for quick tasks.

Plugin Management Improvements

The plugin enable and plugin disable commands now intelligently auto-detect the correct scope when --scope is not specified, eliminating the previous behavior of always defaulting to user scope. This makes plugin management more intuitive and reduces configuration errors.

Model Updates

Sonnet 4.5 with 1M context is being phased out from the Max plan in favor of the new frontier Sonnet 4.6 model, which now includes 1M context support. Users should switch to the new model via /model to access the latest capabilities.

Performance Optimizations

This release includes several significant performance improvements:

Reduced startup time by caching authentication failures for MCP servers
Batched MCP tool token counting into single API calls
Eliminated unnecessary API calls in non-interactive mode (-p)
Fixed unbounded WASM memory growth during long sessions

Enterprise and SDK Enhancements

New ConfigChange hook event enables enterprise security auditing
SDK model info now includes capability fields like supportsEffort and supportsAdaptiveThinking
Improved permission prompts now show context for restrictions
Fixed managed settings hierarchy for disableAllHooks

Bug Fixes

Fixed prompt suggestion cache regression affecting hit rates
Resolved verbose mode display issues when toggled via /config
Fixed session picker displaying raw XML tags for command-starting sessions
Corrected stale layout references causing rendering issues

How to Update

To update to Claude Code v2.1.49, follow your standard update process. The release is available through the usual distribution channels, and existing configurations should remain compatible.