Unclear What provides the allow_channels answer is not clear.
What
Whether Channels is available used to depend only on the tengu_harbor flag. It now also depends on a policy verdict about allow_channels that comes from Anthropic's servers:
- A new check,
cdt(), treats Channels as off unlesstengu_harboris on and anallow_channelsverdict is present that is notcache_missorroute_missing.nL()now also requiresnn("allow_channels"). - A new policy entry,
allow_channels, labelled Channels (HIPAA-R71), is denied under thehipaapolicy. It is also denied when the verdict is not cached yet (cache miss) and when the verdict is a fail-open one. - The startup dialog now asks
isChannelsOffForSession, which is the reverse of the oldisChannelsEnabledquestion. - The Channels status has a new
verdictPendingfield. While the verdict has not arrived, it readscache_missorroute_missing. - The waiting text shown on screen is now " · web fetch, design sync and Channels wait for it".
Why
Turning the flag on is no longer enough to get Channels. Organisations under the HIPAA policy will not get it, and anyone may see Channels held back at startup until the server verdict arrives.
tengu_harbor Off by default, switched on for this accountThe shipped code defaults this off, and the flag server returned on for the one account this site reads on this version. That is the reading that makes the entry above worth a second look, and it still says nothing about your account.
This account: on · anonymous baseline: on · compiled default in v2.1.290: off
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 v2.1.290. It isn't a statement about your account. What a flag value here can and cannot tell you
What provides the `allow_channels` answer is not clear.