You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
2Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
ElsewhereArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.281,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
Sometimes an error from the API comes back as an HTML web page rather than a plain message. When nothing useful can be pulled out of that page, Claude Code now shows a short error instead:
With a known status code: the code plus its standard reason phrase, for example a number followed by its usual name
With no status code: "API error (status unknown)"
When readable text was extracted but it lacks the status number: that text with the status number put in front
In all other cases the original message is shown with any trailing blank space trimmed.
Why
An error that used to fill the screen with web page code now reads as a single short line, and the status number stays visible so it can be looked up or reported.
How sure we are
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's release notes agreeImproved screen-reader output in /mcp: a disabled server is read as "off" instead of "pending"
