You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
3Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Cloud SessionsArea: what it touches
Internal ChangesKind: in v2.1.285,
ImprovementsSection of the release
Unclear What this list is used for is not known, so the effect of the removal is unclear.
What
When you start a cloud session, for example with claude --cloud, Claude Code has to get your local files to it. Several ways of doing this were removed or narrowed:
Uploading your repository as a git bundle (one file holding the repository) remains. The old message "Cannot start a cloud session from this folder right now" and the reroute and fallback paths after a bundle failure are gone.
CLAUDE_CODE_LEGACY_BUNDLE is no longer honoured on macOS and Linux. Setting it there logs "CLAUDE_CODE_LEGACY_BUNDLE is not honoured on macOS and Linux: the default upload method runs". Only Windows keeps the older path. A new message suggests pushing your work and connecting GitHub instead. It was also dropped from a list of bundle variables that now holds only CCR_ENABLE_BUNDLE and CCR_FORCE_BUNDLE, though it is still used elsewhere.
When a bundle upload fails with an unsupported layout, falling back to the older capture method now depends on a check. If the check says no, the upload is refused.
Sessions tied to a device fail early if they are created with built-in tools and a first message together. The session request now also carries maxTurns and builtinTools.
The waiting message is shorter: "A message is waiting · esc to take it back" instead of mentioning files still syncing.
Interrupting or timing out while a cloud session is still being created now says so, for example "Interrupted while the cloud session was being created - it may still be running".
Why
If you relied on any CLAUDE_CODE_DIR_SYNC_* variable, or on CLAUDE_CODE_LEGACY_BUNDLE on a Mac or Linux machine, it no longer has any effect. Some cloud sessions that used to start by falling back to another method may now fail with a message, and connecting GitHub is the suggested way around it.