surface — settings key / Claude Code source intelligence

What it is

Upgrade links now include tracking parameters so each entry point is attributable.

Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.219.

Presence across releases

The miner has never read a build containing this name. It is here because a changelog entry of ours names it, which is evidence that it existed and not evidence of which releases carried it. The inventory starts at v2.1.138 and everything older than that was never mined.

First cited

No release's published evidence quotes this name. The ledger indexes the Evidence lines of every changelog on this site, so this says nobody here has ever quoted it; it says nothing about how old the name is.

Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the settings key does. All settings keys.

Written about31

Releases whose published page names surface.

v2.1.277Promo banner telemetry gains an entry_point dimension
Promo banner clicks and opens now record which entry point triggered them

found in this entry's text
v2.1.277Fleet command bar and fleet reply composer now strip invisible/injected characters before dispatch
Fleet's command bar and reply composer now strip invisible characters and block sending if any are found

found in this entry's text
v2.1.277Plugin UI test API $.ui.press now supports non-terminal surfaces
Plugin test helper $.ui.press can now press buttons on non-terminal surfaces

found in this entry's text
v2.1.277Plugin component events generalized beyond terminal via a new 'surface' field
Plugin UI component events can now report a surface other than 'terminal'

found in this entry's text, named in this entry
v2.1.269hooks.json surface field removed in favor of inline Client module references
hooks.json drops its surface field; plugins now name their display module directly on each Client element

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269Plugin loader: hook-module "surface" tagging removed; new parameter threaded through
Plugin hook loading drops an internal "surface" tag while gaining a new unused parameter

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269New plugin hook event: session.surfaces (plural)
A new plugin hook event, session.surfaces (plural), joins the existing session.surface

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269Permission-allow decisions now record which UI surface granted them, and host-dialog allows are pushed to the session
Permission-allow decisions now record which UI surface granted them

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269Plugin hooks-module loading drops an inline surface-path traversal check here; multi-module surface loading added elsewhere
Plugin hooks-module loading no longer validates a separate 'surface' path there; surface loading elsewhere now supports multiple modules

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269Tool-decision telemetry now records which UI surface produced an accept
Tool-decision telemetry now records which UI surface an accepted tool call came from

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269session.surfaces added alongside session.surface
New session.surfaces control endpoint lists all attached drawing surfaces, alongside the existing single-surface one

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269New telemetry/event identifiers added
Several new internal event and telemetry names have been registered

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269logDecision gains a 'surface' field for config-based tool approvals
Logged permission decisions now include a 'surface' field for config-based tool approvals

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269Plugin/hook control-protocol gains session.surfaces and config.list capabilities
Plugin and hook SDK gains session.surfaces and config.list capabilities

found in this entry's text
v2.1.269Decision-log 'accept via config' events now carry a 'surface' field
Auto-accepted tool-permission log entries now record a surface field

found in this entry's text
v2.1.268Remote-session org-policy denials now emit telemetry
Blocked remote-session actions from org policy now emit a tengu_org_policy_denied telemetry event

found in this entry's text
v2.1.268Frontmatter-shadow telemetry no longer conflates surface and detail
Frontmatter-shadow telemetry now logs surface and detail as separate values instead of one value duplicated into both

found in this entry's text
v2.1.268New virtual plugin "surface" bundling/runtime scheme
A new "surface" virtual-module system lets plugin desktop UI code import from special surface:/// and claude: URIs

found in this entry's text
v2.1.268Feedback survey followup payload now whitelists included transcript/session fields
Feedback survey followups now send only a fixed, named list of fields instead of a free-form object

found in this entry's text
v2.1.267Hooks plugin API gains a 'to' messaging primitive, 'surface' concept, and table resolution
Hooks/plugin runtime gains a 'to' messaging function, a 'surface' concept, and table-resolution requests

found in this entry's text, named in this entry
v2.1.267New plugin "surface" UI system for terminal-rendered plugin components ("Clients")
Plugins can now draw their own interactive UI elements ('Clients') directly in the terminal

found in this entry's text, named in this entry
v2.1.267hooks.json can now declare a surface module
hooks.json can now declare a separate 'surface' module for drawing a hook module's UI elements

found in this entry's text, named in this entry
v2.1.267Plugin hook system gains matcher/argument-shape validation and size-limited ui.message data
Plugin hooks now get validation errors for malformed matchers, disallowed edits, and oversized ui.message data

found in this entry's text
v2.1.259New Svg render element type for engine/dialog UI trees
Dialog and engine UI trees can include an Svg element, and the validator now reports when an element isn't allowed on a surface.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.247Device-flow docs describe the surface parameter Claude Code sends
OAuth docs now note that Claude Code sends a surface parameter and its own user agent.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.239Spend and rate limit notices say when the limit resets
Rate and spend limit notices now name the limit and when it resets.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.223Programmatic submission of a queued feedback draft
Scripts can now submit a queued feedback draft by id without opening the review dialog.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.221Daemon-boot gesture telemetry gets more fields
Reconnect telemetry now records more detail about how your session came back up.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.221Background attach telemetry gets cold-start and surface dimensions
Background attach events now record cold starts, surface and first frame details.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.219Upgrade links now carry a per-surface UTM campaign
Upgrade links now include tracking parameters so each entry point is attributable.

found in this entry's text
v2.1.120Feedback Submission Now Tracks Surface Origin
found in this entry's text

Documentation pages12

Or, for the model with the same capabilities and no access approval requirement: mentions it Claude Developer Platform
optimizing-for-cost-and-intelligence mentions it Claude Developer Platform
claude-api-skill mentions it Claude Developer Platform
enterprise mentions it Claude Developer Platform
PDF Processing mentions it Claude Developer Platform
mcp-connector mentions it Claude Developer Platform
reference mentions it Claude Developer Platform
advisor-tool mentions it Claude Developer Platform
browser-use-tool mentions it Claude Developer Platform
define-tools mentions it Claude Developer Platform
memory-tool mentions it Claude Developer Platform
tool-combinations mentions it Claude Developer Platform

A reference table page is one whose own table defines this name, and it is where the description above came from. A page that mentions it carries the name somewhere in its text and may say nothing about it at all. Every page carrying it.