When you resume an old session (reopen an earlier conversation), Claude Code can ask: “You’re resuming an older session. Continue with a newer model?” The actual model names fill in the question. The offer is for a newer model of the same family.
It appears only when all of these hold:
- You are on a Pro, Max or Team plan.
- The session has been idle for a long time.
- Switching would not cost more in cached conversation data than staying.
- You have not been asked about the same pair of models too often or too recently.
If you accept, the model switches. If you keep the current one, Claude Code shows a notice that you are staying on it. A server setting decides whether the prompt is shown, and when the server sends nothing it stays off.
This prompt can change which model a resumed session uses, so it is worth reading before you answer.
tengu_rosy_pine Not enough to sayNothing 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 v2.1.286: not a boolean we can read
These values were read against a different version of Claude Code, so treat them as the nearest reading available instead of one taken on this release.
Read once, for one account on one subscription tier, against v2.1.286. It isn't a statement about your account. What a flag value here can and cannot tell you
How long the session must be idle and how often the question may be asked are not known.
New in this build: tengu_rosy_pine