Claude Code v2.1.144: Enhanced Background Sessions and Major Bug Fixes

The latest Claude Code release delivers significant improvements to session management and resolves numerous stability issues that have been affecting power users.

What’s New

Background Session Improvements

The standout feature in v2.1.144 is enhanced background session support. You can now use /resume to access background sessions started via claude --bg or agent view, with these sessions clearly marked with a bg indicator. Background subagent completion notifications now include elapsed duration (e.g., “Agent completed · 3h 2m 5s”), making it easier to track long-running processes.

Plugin and Model Management Updates

The /plugin browse and discover panes now display when plugins were last updated, helping you stay current with your toolset. Model selection behavior has been refined: /model now only changes the model for the current session, while pressing d in the model picker sets a default for new sessions. Additionally, “extra usage” terminology has been updated to “usage credits” throughout the CLI, with /usage-credits replacing /extra-usage (though the old command still works).

Critical Bug Fixes

This release addresses several critical issues:

Startup Performance: Fixed hanging up to 75 seconds when api.anthropic.com is unreachable due to captive portals, firewalls, or VPN issues. API calls now timeout after 15 seconds.
Terminal Rendering: Resolved garbled output after missed window-resize events and progressive display corruption in long sessions. VS Code integration has been improved with reduced spinner animation glitches.
macOS Compatibility: Fixed background session crashes on macOS when projects are under Full Disk Access-protected folders.
File Handling: Better handling of files with mismatched extensions, now falling back to text when image parsing fails.
Session Stability: Multiple fixes for conversation branching, model selection persistence, and session resumption.

MCP and Tool Improvements

Model Control Protocol (MCP) support has been enhanced with fixes for paginated tools/list responses and better handling of unsupported image MIME types. Search operations now generate fewer spurious errors, with improved handling of “no matches” results from grep commands.

How to Update

Update to Claude Code v2.1.144 through your preferred package manager or download directly from the official repository. Existing sessions will automatically benefit from the stability improvements, and background sessions will appear in your /resume list after the update.