You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
5Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
3Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Read ToolArea: what it touches
New FeaturesKind: in v2.1.296,
What probably matters to youSection of the release
What
The Read tool, which Claude uses to open files, accepts a new optional input, allow_large. When Claude sets it to true, Read can open a text file, or a range of its lines, that is over the usual size limits. The new ceiling is however much room is left in the conversation's context (the amount of text Claude can hold at once) before Claude Code would compact it, meaning summarise older parts to free space.
Without allow_large, the old fixed size and token limits still apply. Claude is told to use it only when it needs the whole file or you asked for it, and otherwise to read in parts. When a file is too large, the error now says whether allow_large could have got past the limit.
Why
A large file can now be read in one call instead of in many pieces, as long as the conversation has space for it. It also means a single read can use up much of the remaining room, which brings compaction closer.
Read from
Names in the bundleallow_large
Feature flag
tengu_read_dedup_killswitchOff in both readings
The flag server returned off for the account this site reads and for the anonymous baseline. A reading of off cannot rule out a rollout these two readings sit outside of.
This account: off · anonymous baseline: off · compiled default in v2.1.296: 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.
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's release notes agreeAdded an allow_large option to the Read tool so Claude can read a text file past the usual size limits in one call when it needs the whole…
