New /restart command keeps your session and refuses remote or non-typed use

What

A new command, /restart, restarts Claude Code and keeps your current session, meaning the conversation you are in. It can also offer to restart onto a newer version of Claude Code. /update still works as another name for it, and the transcript (the saved record of the conversation) now records the command as /restart instead of /update.

The command is only enabled when all of these hold:

• Claude Code is running in an interactive terminal (a TTY).
• The computer runs macOS or Linux.
• The feature flag tengu_fancy_wand is on. A feature flag is a switch Anthropic controls from its servers. The flag server returned off for this site's account and for an anonymous check, but no reading has been taken under this release yet.

It refuses to run in two new cases:

• When someone other than the session's owner sends it over Remote Control, which lets you drive a session from another device. The message is "/restart isn't available over Remote Control."
• When it was not typed at the prompt, for example when something other than you tries to run it.

These join the existing refusals for background sessions, transcript drift, sessions that cannot be carried over, and active tasks. Each restart is also now recorded, with the version it came from, the version it goes to, and whether this is a native install.

Why

You can update or restart Claude Code without losing the conversation you are in. Because the command must be typed by you, a remote client or Claude itself cannot trigger a restart of your session.