What probably matters to youSection of the release
What
/focus switches the focus view, which shows only your last prompt, a one-line summary of the work and the final response. It can now be used in non-interactive sessions, meaning SDK and headless runs where another program drives Claude Code.
A second /focus command, with argument hint [on|off], is available only when the session is not interactive. With no argument it flips the current state; other arguments get "Unknown argument ... Use: /focus [on|off]".
It writes viewMode into the flag-settings layer and sends apply_flag_settings with briefTranscript.
If a managed viewMode setting overrides the choice, it replies that focus view is set by that setting and stays on or off.
Submitted from local standard input, it refuses with "/focus isn't available here yet".
The interactive /focus now says it needs the fullscreen renderer when not in fullscreen.
The session start message sent to SDK hosts now includes view_mode ("focus" or "default") and per_turn_effort_active, an internal field marking whether a per-turn effort setting is active.
Why
SDK and remote hosts can switch focus view per session without editing settings.json, and can mirror the current view. The effort field lets a host tell when changing effort would invalidate the prompt cache.
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.
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up /focus, on Continue local sessions from any device with Remote Control.* `/focus`, from v2.1.281: pass `on` or `off` as an argument, for example `/focus on`, or run it with no argument to toggle the [focus view](/docs/en/commands#all-commands). Both forms apply to the current session only and leave your saved…remote-controlsee the edit
Added sinceA small documentation edit on Continue local sessions from any device with Remote Control touched a line naming /focus after this was published.* `/focus`, from v2.1.281: pass `on` or `off` as an argument, for example `/focus on`, or run it with no argument to toggle the [focus view](/docs/en/commands#all-commands). Both forms apply to the current session only and leave your saved…remote-controlsee the edit
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 make clear which way of running Claude Code counts as submitting on local stdin.
Anthropic's documentation agreesA small documentation edit on Continue local sessions from any device with Remote Control touched a line naming /focus after this was…