Unclear Which startup step is skipped, and what it would have done in a JSON run, is not known.
What
When Claude Code runs headless, meaning without its interactive screen, usually from a script, you can ask for its output as json or stream-json. With either of those formats, Claude Code now skips one step that it still runs at startup for every other output format.
Why
Scripts and tools that read Claude Code's JSON output now start through one fewer step. Runs with any other output format start the same way as before.
Names in the bundlestream-json
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubt
Which startup step is skipped, and what it would have done in a JSON run, is not known.