You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
4Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
4Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Auto ModeArea: what it touches
New FeaturesKind: in v2.1.248,
What probably matters to youSection of the release
What
2.1.247 refused auto mode on non-first-party providers with "auto mode requires CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_AUTO_MODE=1". That check is gone. The variable now survives only as a name in the environment-variable registry and is read nowhere in this build, so setting it does nothing. Auto mode can now be turned off by the disableAutoMode setting, by the remote tengu_auto_mode_config (built-in default enabled), by model support, or by the new fast-mode breaker.
Details
The fast-mode breaker surfaces to you as "auto mode unavailable while fast mode is on · run /fast off".
Evidence
auto mode unavailable while fast mode is on \xB7 run /fast off
Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Added sinceA small documentation edit on Set up Claude Code for your organization touched a line naming disableAutoMode after this was published.| [Starting permission mode](/docs/en/permission-modes#which-mode-a-session-starts-in) | Choose the permission mode your developers' terminal sessions start in instead of the built-in starting permission mode, or remove auto mode. [Switch …admin-setupsee the edit
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up disableAutoMode, on Changelog.* Changed `autoModeEnabled`: unless it is `false`, new Code tab sessions now start in Auto mode where the selected model supports it, and when the key is not set the Code tab now offers Auto mode (previously only when it was `true`). Cowor…cowork/changelogsee the edit
What has happened since
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"modelByMainModel":{"claude-haiku-5-5":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]","claude-haiku-5-5[1m]":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]"},"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"modelByMainModel":{"claude-haiku-5-5":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]","claude-haiku-5-5[1m]":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]"},"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"modelByMainModel":{"claude-haiku-5-5":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]","claude-haiku-5-5[1m]":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]"},"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.
Flag reading movedThe flag server now returns {"editRemovalCap":3000,"editRemovalVisibility":true,"enabled":"enabled","envOnboarding":true,"gitStatusType":true,"gitStatusUploads":false,"jsonlTranscript":true,"modelByMainModel":{"claude-haiku-5-5":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]","claude-haiku-5-5[1m]":"claude-sonnet-5[1m]"},"outcomeVisibility":false,"repoVisibility":true,"sameTurnSiblingContext":true,"severityByModel":{"claude-opus-4-8":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-opus-4-8[1m]":{"t1":45,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5":{"t1":25,"t2":35},"claude-sonnet-5[1m]":{"t1":25,"t2":35}},"severityBySite":{"compactFabCheck":"on","handoff":"on","investigator":"on","sandboxNetwork":"on","workflowGate":"on"},"twoStageClassifier":true} for tengu_auto_mode_config, read as this account.A reading is one sample. Claude Code evaluates its flags remotely, so no client sees the targeting rule behind a value and this says nothing about your account.