# Claude Code v2.1.128

> Claude Code v2.1.128, released 4 May 2026 (2026-05-04). 10 entries read out of the shipped bundle. Unofficial, and not affiliated with Anthropic.

Web version: https://changelogs.core-directive.com/v/2.1.128

Claude Code 2.1.128 adds a feature-flagged way to turn team onboarding guides into share links, adds a managed setting for organizations to disable Remote Control, and improves several background-session recovery paths. It also tightens provider-specific messaging for Channels/Fast Mode, expands session-only plugin handling, and makes large/media tool results fail more clearly instead of surfacing confusing output.

## Changes

### Team Onboarding Guide Sharing [Gradual Rollout]

**What**

The built-in team onboarding flow can now upload `ONBOARDING.md` and return a Claude Code share link for teammates.

**Usage**

`/team-onboarding` **Details** - The existing onboarding guide flow now has a `ShareOnboardingGuide` tool that uploads `ONBOARDING.md`. - The tool supports three modes: `check`, `update`, and `create`. - If a guide already exists for the org, Claude asks whether to update the existing link or create a new one. - The guide must be in the current directory and under 64 KB. - This is gated by `tengu_flint_harbor_share`, so not every user will see it yet. **Evidence** Team onboarding share tool and rollout gate (search for `"ShareOnboardingGuide"` and `"tengu_flint_harbor_share"`)

- Flag `tengu_flint_harbor_share`: Off in both readings (read for one account on one subscription tier against v2.1.128; this account: off, anonymous baseline: off, compiled default: no gate table built for this version) These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.

### Managed Remote Control Disable Setting

**What**

Organizations can now disable Remote Control centrally through managed settings.

**Usage**

`{ "disableRemoteControl": true }` **Details** - The new setting disables `claude.ai/code`, `claude remote-control`, `--remote-control`, `--rc`, auto-start, and the in-session Remote Control toggle. - When policy blocks the feature, users now see a specific managed-setting error instead of a generic Remote Control denial. **Evidence** Managed setting schema and policy error (search for `"disableRemoteControl"` and `"Remote Control is disabled by your organization's policy (managed setting `disableRemoteControl`)."`)

### Background Session Recovery and Cleanup

Claude Code is better at recovering background sessions that stall, crash, or lose their supervisor connection.

**Usage**

`claude attach <id> claude respawn <id> claude respawn --all claude rm <id>` **Details** - `attach` now attempts to wake sessions that report `ENOJOB`, reconnects through a transient service when possible, and gives clearer messages when a session moved, exited, or cannot be reattached. - Startup stalls can now trigger an automatic worker restart before giving up. - `respawn` and `rm` now have explicit `--help` output. - `rm` keeps changed worktrees instead of blindly removing them when uncommitted changes are present. **Evidence** Background recovery messages (search for `"Session not responding — restarting it…"`, `"Usage: claude respawn <id>|--all"`, and `"Worktree has uncommitted changes — kept at"`)

### Session-Only Plugin Zip Loading

`--plugin-dir` now explicitly supports `.zip` files and reports when an inline plugin zip is extracted.

**Usage**

`claude --plugin-dir ./my-plugin.zip` **Details** - Help text now documents repeatable directory or zip loading. - Zip extraction emits debug output, making plugin load failures easier to diagnose. - Existing managed-setting checks still apply to session-only plugins. **Evidence** Plugin flag help and zip extraction path (search for `"Load a plugin from a directory or .zip"` and `"Extracted inline plugin zip to"`)

### MCP Tool Search Handles Late-Connecting Servers Better [Gradual Rollout]

Tool search can now refresh MCP clients and retry selection/search when matching tools may still be arriving from connecting servers.

**Details**

- When enabled, direct `select:<tool_name>` can retry after an MCP refresh.
- Keyword searches can also refresh before declaring that no tools match.
- Claude receives clearer guidance that connecting MCP servers may expose tools shortly.
- This behavior is gated by `tengu_ashen_kelp`.

**Evidence**

Deferred tool refresh behavior (search for `"ToolSearchTool: partial select after MCP refresh"` and `"tengu_ashen_kelp"`)

- Flag `tengu_ashen_kelp`: On for this account, and not off by default (read for one account on one subscription tier against v2.1.128; this account: on, anonymous baseline: on, compiled default: no gate table built for this version) These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.

### Clearer Provider Restrictions for Channels and Fast Mode

Provider-specific features now explain why they are unavailable instead of showing generic auth or availability errors.

**Details**

- Channels now say they are unavailable on Bedrock, Vertex, or Foundry.
- Fast Mode now says it is only available when using the Anthropic API directly.
- Bedrock setup text consistently says “Amazon Bedrock.”

**Evidence**

Provider-specific messages (search for `"Channels are not available on Bedrock, Vertex, or Foundry"` and `"Fast mode is only available when using the Anthropic API directly"`)

### Effort Selection Defaults Back to Auto

Clearing effort now reports and applies `auto` instead of saying it set effort to `max`.

**Usage**

`/effort auto` **Details** - The cache-warning dialog now uses “Change effort level?” when only effort changes. - Remote sessions get clearer messaging when an effort setting cannot reach the remote process. **Evidence** Effort reset and cache warning text (search for `"Effort level set to auto"` and `"Change effort level?"`)

### Better Large Input and Media Result Messages

Claude Code now explains size and media limits more directly.

**Details**

- Piped stdin that exceeds the size cap tells users to pass large content as a file path.
- Oversized remote requests tell users to shorten the prompt or send it in parts.
- Media rejected by the API is replaced with an explicit placeholder instead of failing opaquely.
- PDF content returned by inner `Read` calls can be surfaced as document content blocks.

**Evidence**

User-facing limit messages (search for `"piped stdin input exceeds"`, `"request exceeds"`, `"(media removed — rejected by API)"`, and `"PDFs returned by inner Read calls"`)

### Background Fleet Labels Are More Action-Oriented

Blocked background work is now labeled as “Needs input,” making it clearer that user action is required.

**Evidence**

Fleet status label rename (search for `"Needs input"`)

## Bug Fixes

- Auto mode fallback now suggests `/compact` when classifier context is too large, and stage-2 classifier errors say retrying often succeeds. Evidence: Auto mode fallback messages (search for `"Auto mode classifier transcript exceeded context window — falling back to manual approval (try /compact to reduce conversation size)"` and `"Stage 2 classifier error - blocking based on stage 1 assessment (usually transient — retrying often succeeds)"`)

- Voice input now pauses after repeated early failures instead of repeatedly starting failing sessions. Evidence: Voice circuit breaker (search for `"Voice input is failing repeatedly and has been paused"`)

- Remote egress gateway environments now propagate Google Cloud auth and CA certificate variables, improving GCP tooling inside proxied remote sessions. Evidence: GCP proxy environment propagation (search for `"CLOUDSDK_AUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN"` and `"CLOUDSDK_CORE_CUSTOM_CA_CERTS_FILE"`)

- MCP configuration now rejects reserved internal server names with clearer guidance. Evidence: Reserved MCP name validation (search for `"is a reserved MCP name"` and `"Rename this server in your MCP config"`)

- GitHub PR status fetching drops `mergeStateStatus` from the GraphQL fragment and adds REST status-list fallback strings, reducing reliance on a fragile PR field. Evidence: PR status query change (search for `"fragment pr on PullRequest"` and `"[ghPrStatus] REST list"`)