Claude Code v2.1.142: Enhanced Agent Configuration and Improved Stability

Claude Code v2.1.142 is here with significant improvements to agent configuration, model upgrades, and a host of stability fixes that enhance the overall development experience. This release focuses on making background sessions more reliable and giving users greater control over their Claude agents.

What’s New

Enhanced Agent Configuration

The claude agents command now supports a comprehensive set of configuration flags that give you fine-grained control over dispatched background sessions:

--add-dir: Add directories to your agent’s workspace
--settings: Configure agent-specific settings
--mcp-config: Specify MCP (Model Context Protocol) configuration
--plugin-dir: Set custom plugin directories
--permission-mode: Control permission handling
--model: Specify which model to use
--effort: Adjust processing effort levels
--dangerously-skip-permissions: Skip permission checks (use with caution)

Model Upgrade

Fast mode now defaults to Opus 4.7 instead of Opus 4.6, providing improved performance and capabilities. If you need to stick with the previous version, you can set the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_OPUS_4_6_FAST_MODE_OVERRIDE=1.

Plugin and Skill Improvements

Plugins with a root-level SKILL.md file and no skills/ subdirectory are now automatically recognized as skills
The plugin details pane now displays LSP servers that a plugin provides
Enhanced /web-setup with warnings before replacing existing GitHub App connections

Stability and Bug Fixes

Background Session Improvements:

Fixed background sessions not recognizing pre-existing git worktrees
Resolved issues with sessions disappearing after macOS sleep/wake cycles
Fixed daemon cleanup issues after binary upgrades
Improved handling of network-drive working directories on Windows

Agent and Tool Fixes:

Fixed MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT not properly raising timeouts for remote MCP servers
Resolved crash-looping issues with Claude-in-Chrome extension
Fixed link clicking in attached agent sessions
Improved editor selection for “v to open in editor” functionality

UI and Plugin Fixes:

Fixed background-color issues in 256-color terminals
Resolved session title derivation from URLs
Fixed plugin cache cleanup and installation metadata handling
Improved error messages for plugin configuration issues

Performance Enhancements

Improved reactive compaction: First summarization attempts now use smarter seeding to avoid wasted retries
Better hook configuration: Clearer error messages for incorrect hook types
Cleaner model handling: Removed redundant model requests and outdated suggestions

How to Update

To update to Claude Code v2.1.142, use your preferred package manager:

# Using Homebrew
brew upgrade claude-code

# Or download directly from the release page

After updating, restart any active daemon processes to ensure all fixes take effect.