AI Frontier Labs Release Notes Podcast

Claude Code v2.1.143 — plugin deps, PowerShell defaults, worktree escape hatches, stop-hook circuit breaker

Source: CHANGELOG.md [https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md] — v2.1.143. Plugin dependency enforcement. claude plugin disable now refuses if another enabled plugin depends on the target, and prints a copy-pasteable disable chain. claude plugin enable force-enables transitive dependencies automatically. End of silent breakage when plugins depend on each other. PowerShell on by default for Bedrock / Vertex / Foundry on Windows. The PowerShell tool is now enabled by default for cloud-provider variants on Windows, and runs with -ExecutionPolicy Bypass so scripts don't trip on the default Restricted policy. Opt out with CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=0; keep the policy restrictive with CLAUDE_CODE_POWERSHELL_RESPECT_EXECUTION_POLICY=1. worktree.bgIsolation: "none" tells background sessions to skip the per-session git worktree dance and edit the working copy directly. For repos where worktrees are impractical — submodules, mixed VCS, build artifacts that don't survive relative-path moves. Trade-off: parallel sessions can now stomp each other's edits. Worktree cleanup no longer falls back to rm -rf. When git worktree remove fails — usually gitignored files, in-progress edits, stuck index locks — Claude Code used to rm -rf the directory. Now it stops and surfaces the error. No more silent loss of WIP work. Stop-hook circuit breaker. Stop hooks that keep blocking the end of a turn now get cut off after 8 consecutive blocks, with a warning. Tune the threshold with CLAUDE_CODE_STOP_HOOK_BLOCK_CAP. Prevents a stuck hook from pinning the session forever. /bg and detach preserve session config. Backgrounding a session — via /bg or ←-detach from agent view — now preserves --mcp-config, --settings, --add-dir, --plugin-dir, --strict-mcp-config, --fallback-model, and --allow-dangerously-skip-permissions. Background sessions launched from claude agents also now honor permissions.defaultMode from settings.json instead of being force-overridden to auto mode. Not in this episode: 29 bug fixes including the macOS Documents/Desktop/Downloads permission error, corrupted credentials hanging the CLI, IDE file-reference leak into warm spares, Windows ← keystroke hangs, plus follow-up clarifications to features covered in episode 28. * (00:00) - Plugin dependency enforcement * (01:02) - PowerShell defaults on Windows * (01:55) - worktree.bgIsolation escape hatch * (02:34) - Worktree cleanup: no more rm -rf * (03:22) - Stop-hook circuit breaker * (03:52) - /bg preserves session config

Claude Code v2.1.142 — claude agents flags, Opus 4.7 fast mode default, MCP timeout fix

Source: CHANGELOG.md [https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md] — v2.1.142. claude agents inherits session flags. claude agents now accepts --add-dir, --settings, --mcp-config, --plugin-dir, --permission-mode, --model, --effort, and --dangerously-skip-permissions. Before, dispatched background sessions just inherited daemon defaults. Now each session is per-call scoped. Fast mode defaults to Opus 4.7. speed: "fast" and /fast now route through Opus 4.7 instead of Opus 4.6. The Opus 4.7 launch was April 16 on the platform; fast mode was still on 4.6 until this release. Pin the old behavior with CLAUDE_CODE_OPUS_4_6_FAST_MODE_OVERRIDE=1. Root-level SKILL.md plugins. A plugin with a top-level SKILL.md and no skills/ subdirectory is now surfaced as a single skill named after the plugin. Removes the scaffolding for one-skill plugins where the skill and plugin are basically the same thing. LSP servers in plugin details. The /plugin details pane and claude plugin details now list LSP servers a plugin contributes from .lsp.json, alongside its skills, agents, hooks, and MCP servers. Surface-area transparency before install. /web-setup safety prompt. /web-setup now confirms before replacing an existing GitHub App connection on the same org. Previously the connection was silently overwritten, breaking other users' web sessions in the same workspace. MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT fix for remote servers. Behavioral trap: MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT was being ignored for remote HTTP and SSE MCP servers — calls capped at 60s regardless of the configured value. Now it actually raises the per-request fetch timeout for remote servers too, not just stdio. If you've been seeing weird one-minute aborts on mcp-remote-style servers, this is the fix. Not in this episode: 18 bug fixes including daemon sleep/wake reconnects, brew-upgrade crash-loop, Windows network-drive deadlocks, plugin cache cleanup, and various UX fixes. * (00:00) - claude agents inherits session flags * (01:10) - Fast mode defaults to Opus 4.7 * (01:56) - Root-level SKILL.md plugins * (02:30) - LSP servers in plugin details * (03:06) - /web-setup GitHub App warning * (03:37) - MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT fix for remote servers

Claude Code v2.1.141 — Hook terminalSequence, HTTPS plugins, WIF workspace scope

Source: CHANGELOG.md [https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md] — v2.1.141. Hook terminalSequence output. Hook JSON output now accepts a terminalSequence field, so hooks can emit desktop notifications, window-title updates, and bells without owning a TTY. Lets daemonized and headless hooks signal completion or attention. CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_PREFER_HTTPS. Set this env var to clone GitHub plugin sources over HTTPS instead of SSH. Useful for CI runners, locked-down corporate laptops, and dev containers without an SSH key. ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID for WIF. Workload identity federation rules can cover more than one workspace. Setting ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID scopes the minted federated token to a specific workspace — one federation rule at the org level, per-workspace blast radius at runtime. claude agents --cwd. New flag scopes the agent session list to a working directory. Helps when you have many sessions across many repos. Pairs well with a shell alias per project. Rewind: Summarize up to here. Rewind always threw away everything after a chosen turn. The new action compresses everything before the chosen turn, leaving recent turns intact — useful for long debugging sessions where early diagnostic context is heavy but recent fix attempts still matter. Not in this episode: 50+ bug fixes including Bedrock cross-account auth export, MCP config diagnostics, Remote Control token rotation, and many small UX fixes. * (00:00) - Hook terminalSequence output * (01:07) - CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_PREFER_HTTPS * (01:42) - ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID for WIF * (02:34) - claude agents --cwd * (03:07) - Rewind: Summarize up to here

Claude Platform — May 11, 2026 — Claude Platform on AWS

Source: platform.claude.com release notes [https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/api] — May 11, 2026. Claude Platform on AWS — launched. The full Anthropic API surface is now available through Anthropic-managed infrastructure on AWS, with AWS billing and IAM authentication. That includes the Messages API, Files API, Message Batches API, Claude Managed Agents, Agent Skills, code execution, and tool use — all reachable through native AWS endpoints. How it differs from Bedrock. The Bedrock Messages endpoint (launched April 16) is a Messages-only surface at /anthropic/v1/messages. Claude Platform on AWS is the full platform — same shape as the first-party Anthropic API, just with AWS billing and IAM-based auth. Who it's for. AWS-first organizations that previously had to pick between the rich first-party API (separate billing, separate API-key management) and the Bedrock subset (clean AWS integration, narrower surface). This collapses that trade-off. If you're on GCP, Azure, or on-prem, nothing changes — keep using the Anthropic API directly, or Vertex AI, or Foundry. Docs: Claude Platform on AWS [https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/claude-platform-on-aws].

Claude Platform — May 12, 2026 — Fast mode for Opus 4.7

What's new on the Claude Platform — May 12, 2026 One bullet with a narrow but meaningful audience: fast mode (research preview) now supports Claude Opus 4.7, extending the same speed lever that's been available for Opus 4.6 since February to the newer model. Pricing, rate limits, and access are unchanged — same waitlist, same beta header. Fast mode (research preview) now supports Claude Opus 4.7 Why: Opus 4.7 shipped April 16 but fast-mode acceleration was still scoped to Opus 4.6; long-horizon agentic workloads on 4.7 had no speed lever. What: Fast mode (research preview) now supports Opus 4.7 — up to 2.5x faster output token generation at premium pricing, same access model as the 4.6 preview. How: Set speed: "fast" with model: "claude-opus-4-7" and the fast-mode-2026-02-01 beta header. Join the waitlist at claude.com/fast-mode [https://claude.com/fast-mode] for access. Hosts: Alex Chen & Sarah Kim · Generated from the official Claude Platform release notes. Release notes: platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/api [https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/api] Fast mode docs: platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/fast-mode [https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/fast-mode]