What
Feature flags are switches that can turn behaviour on or off without a new release. When Claude Code starts serving tools to a remote caller, it gets ready before it decides whether to allow any calls. Getting ready used to mean waiting for these:
- plugin hooks
- remote managed settings
- policy limits
It now also waits for its first download of feature flags, up to a time limit. The debug log records whether that download landed or was not heard in time.
Why
Switches that affect remote tools are now read from their real values when calls are judged. Claude Code no longer relies on built-in fallbacks just because the download had not finished yet.
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How long the time limit for the flag download is was not stated.