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DisclaimerUnofficial, and not affiliated with Anthropic. Nearly all of this is read straight out of what ships: npm bundles, captured prompts, published docs. Anthropic's own notes go in verbatim, marked as theirs. The rest is my reading, and every entry carries the strings behind it. If one looks wrong, vote it down and say why.

← All of v2.1.248 Home All releases ←olderv2.1.247 v2.1.250newer→
Claude Code v2.1.248

Kite network transport now defaults on, including on Windows

Use it now
Useful4 Signal4
Internals Notable not in their notes

The kite network transport is on by default everywhere, and CLAUDE_CODE_HARBOR_KITE=0 now really turns it off.

Feature flag
tengu_harbor_kite_win Off by default, switched on for this account

The shipped code defaults this off, and the flag server returned on for the one account this site reads on this version. That is the reading that makes the entry above worth a second look, and it still says nothing about your account.

This account: on · anonymous baseline: on · compiled default in v2.1.248: off

tengu_harbor_kite Off by default, switched on for this account

The shipped code defaults this off, and the flag server returned on for the one account this site reads on this version. That is the reading that makes the entry above worth a second look, and it still says nothing about your account.

This account: on · anonymous baseline: on · compiled default in v2.1.248: off

tengu_harbor_kite_mode_emit Off by default, switched on for this account

The shipped code defaults this off, and the flag server returned on for the one account this site reads on this version. That is the reading that makes the entry above worth a second look, and it still says nothing about your account.

This account: on · anonymous baseline: on · compiled default in v2.1.248: off

tengu_harbor_kite_cloud Off in both readings

The flag server returned off for the account this site reads and for the anonymous baseline. A reading of off cannot rule out a rollout these two readings sit outside of.

This account: off · anonymous baseline: off · compiled default in v2.1.248: on

tengu_harbor_kite_pacing_off Off in both readings

The flag server returned off for the account this site reads and for the anonymous baseline. A reading of off cannot rule out a rollout these two readings sit outside of.

This account: off · anonymous baseline: off · compiled default in v2.1.248: on

tengu_kairos_loop_keepalive Not enough to say

Nothing here resolved what this flag was doing on this version, so nothing here should be read as on or off.

This account: no value returned · anonymous baseline: no value returned · compiled default in v2.1.248: off

tengu_bg_prewarm_per_sweep Not enough to say

Nothing here resolved what this flag was doing on this version, so nothing here should be read as on or off.

This account: no value returned · anonymous baseline: no value returned · compiled default in v2.1.248: not a boolean we can read

Read once, for one account on one subscription tier, against v2.1.248. It isn't a statement about your account. What a flag value here can and cannot tell you

CLAUDE_CODE_HARBOR_KITE
What

Claude Code's kite transport, the network path used to talk to Anthropic's servers, is now enabled by default when the remote config server sends no value for it, on Windows as well as every other platform. Its environment override is also read as a real boolean rather than merely checked for presence, so CLAUDE_CODE_HARBOR_KITE=0 now turns it off instead of on. The remaining kite gates are decided by remote config or by code outside the part of the release examined here, so their compiled fallbacks only matter when the server is silent.

Details
  • Resolution order: if CLAUDE_CODE_HARBOR_KITE is set, its parsed value wins; otherwise Windows consults the feature gate tengu_harbor_kite_win and every other platform consults tengu_harbor_kite.
  • Those two gates and tengu_harbor_kite_mode_emit, which controls kite mode reporting, moved their compiled fallback from off to on.
  • A live value from the remote config server still overrides any compiled fallback; the fallbacks apply only when the server supplies nothing.
  • The cloud variant tengu_harbor_kite_cloud and tengu_harbor_kite_pacing_off are present but still fall back off.
  • tengu_kairos_loop_keepalive is likewise untouched here, so its behaviour is set elsewhere.
Evidence

tengu_harbor_kite_win, tengu_bg_prewarm_per_sweep

Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.

Related

Other releases about the same thing. Found by shared names or similar wording; neither means one caused the other.

See this entry in the whole of v2.1.248 →