You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
1Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
3Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
ModelsArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.281,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
When Opus or Fable is under heavy load, the error in some sessions now uses a shorter wording, such as "Opus is experiencing high load. Switch to Sonnet.", and leaves out the hint to use /model. The same condition also hides slash-command hints elsewhere. Slash commands are commands typed with a leading /.
Two changes affect "429" errors, which the server sends when too many requests arrive or a limit is reached:
When the error body is not in JSON format, Claude Code now takes the message from the error itself
When extra usage beyond your limit is turned off, that message now starts with "Request rejected (429)"
Why
In sessions where you cannot type a slash command, the error no longer suggests one you cannot use. 429 errors also give a more readable reason.
How sure we are
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtThe finding does not say exactly which sessions get the shorter wording, beyond some non-interactive ones.
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed /model showing the raw API error JSON and request ID when the API refuses the picked model; it now shows the server's message and says…
