{"version":"2.1.302","anchor":"include-unsupported-models-is-a-new-cli-flag-that-is-als","canonical_anchor":"include-unsupported-models-is-a-new-cli-flag-that-is-als","heading":"Hidden flags to start on models Claude Code does not recognise","tier":"use","area":"Models","scope":"both","heads_up":true,"url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.302\/e\/include-unsupported-models-is-a-new-cli-flag-that-is-als","release_url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.302","markdown":"### Hidden flags to start on models Claude Code does not recognise\n\nNew hidden flags `--include-unsupported-models` and `--allow-other-models` let you run models this version would otherwise reject\n\n**Unclear.** What `--allow-other-models` does on its own, and how it relates to `--include-unsupported-models`, is not shown.\n\n**What**\n\nThis release adds two hidden command-line flags. A flag is an option you type after `claude` when you start it. Both flags are about running Claude Code on a model it would normally refuse.\n\n- `--include-unsupported-models` offers models your account can use that this version of Claude Code does not know. Its value is stored as `includeUnsupportedModels` and is off unless you pass the flag. The check that decides whether a model is valid reads it. No setting or other way to turn it on was found.\n\n- `--allow-other-models`, or the environment variable `CLAUDE_CODE_ALLOW_OTHER_MODELS=1`, is for sessions started with `--client-data-url` (or `CLAUDE_CODE_CLIENT_DATA_URL`). These point Claude Code at a signed document that holds per-model client data. An environment variable is a named value set in your shell before you start a program.\n\n- With `--client-data-url`, startup now exits with an error when the document has no entry for the selected model. Before, Claude Code only reported that the document was \"loaded, not applied\" and carried on.\n\n- The new error tells you to pass a matching `--model`, or `--allow-other-models` (`CLAUDE_CODE_ALLOW_OTHER_MODELS=1`), to start without applying the document. With the flag, the session starts on that model and applies none of the document's per-model client data.\n\n- Both flags are carried along when Claude Code relaunches itself and when it starts other processes. `allowOtherModels` is mapped to `CLAUDE_CODE_ALLOW_OTHER_MODELS` for this.\n\n**Why**\n\nIf you use `--client-data-url`, a document that does not cover your model now stops startup instead of being quietly skipped. Pass `--model` to pick a model the document covers, or use `--allow-other-models` to start anyway. `--include-unsupported-models` gets past the usual model check, so it can offer models this version of Claude Code does not know about.\n\n- Area: Models\n- Tier: Use it now\n- Useful: 5\/5\n- Signal: 4\/5\n- Scope: both\n- Heads-up: yes"}