Claude docs changes for May 6th, 2026 [diff]

Executive Summary

• Claude Code 2.1.129 is a major release with new plugin URL loading, auto-update support, multiagent panel fixes, and over a dozen bug fixes including critical OAuth and prompt cache TTL issues
• New Managed Agents beta (managed-agents-2026-04-01) introduces multiagent coordinator support: agents can now define a roster of sub-agents they can spawn within sessions
• New Sessions Threads API added for listing, retrieving, and archiving execution threads within a managed agent session
• New Webhooks API documents event types for session and vault lifecycle changes
• New manage-claude documentation section introduced, consolidating API management topics like authentication, data retention, rate limits, and workload identity federation

New Claude Code versions

2.1.129

New features

• Added --plugin-url <url> flag to fetch a plugin .zip archive from a URL for the current session
• Added CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_SYNC_OUTPUT=1 env var to force-enable synchronized output on terminals that auto-detection misses (e.g. Emacs eat)
• Added CLAUDE_CODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER_AUTO_UPDATE: when set on Homebrew or WinGet installations, automatically runs the upgrade command in the background and prompts to restart
• Plugin manifests: themes and monitors should now be declared under "experimental": { ... } (top-level declarations still work but claude plugin validate will warn)

Existing feature improvements

• Gateway /v1/models discovery for the /model picker is now opt-in via CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1 (was automatic in 2.1.126–2.1.128)
• Ctrl+R history picker now defaults to searching all prompts across all projects (matching pre-2.1.124 behavior); press Ctrl+S to narrow to current project or session
• Third-party deployments (Bedrock, Vertex, Foundry, or ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL gateway) no longer see spinner tips pointing at first-party Anthropic surfaces
• skillOverrides setting now works: off hides from model and /, user-invocable-only hides from model only, name-only collapses description
• The claude_code.pull_request.count OTel metric now counts PRs/MRs created via MCP tools, not just shell commands
• Policy refusal error messages now include the API Request ID for easier support debugging

Major bug fixes

• Fixed OAuth refresh race after wake-from-sleep that could log out all running sessions
• Fixed 1-hour prompt cache TTL being silently downgraded to 5 minutes
• Fixed agent panel below the prompt being hidden when subagents are running (regression in 2.1.122)
• Fixed API errors with unrecognized 400 status codes showing raw JSON instead of the underlying error message
• Fixed /context dumping its rendered ASCII visualization grid into the conversation, wasting ~1.6k tokens per call
• Fixed server-managed settings policy not applying for enterprise/team users whose stored OAuth credentials lacked the user:inference scope
• Fixed Bash(mkdir *), Bash(touch *) and similar allow rules not being honored for in-project paths
• Fixed deniedMcpServers patterns with a *:// scheme wildcard not matching mixed-case hostnames
• Fixed cache-miss warning appearing spuriously after /clear or compaction when changing /effort or /model
• Fixed external-editor handoff (Ctrl+G) blanking the conversation history above the prompt
• [VSCode] Fixed /clear not clearing the conversation context and displayed transcript

2.1.131

Major bug fixes

• Fixed VS Code extension failing to activate on Windows due to a hardcoded build path in the bundled SDK (createRequire polyfill bug)
• Fixed Mantle endpoint authentication failing with missing x-api-key header

Claude Code changes

No changes.

API changes

New Documents

api/beta/sessions/threads [Source]

New Sessions Threads API reference documenting execution threads within a managed agent session. Each session has one primary thread plus zero or more child threads spawned by the coordinator. Endpoints include list, retrieve, archive, and thread event streaming. Thread objects include the resolved agent snapshot, model config, skill bindings, and tool configuration at creation time.

api/beta/vaults/credentials/mcp_oauth_validate [Source]

New POST /v1/vaults/{vault_id}/credentials/{credential_id}/mcp_oauth_validate endpoint for live-probing a vault credential against its configured MCP server. Returns a validation result including whether a refresh token is present, the outcome of a token refresh attempt, and details of any failing MCP probe step (HTTP response, status code, method that failed).

api/beta/webhooks [Source]

New Webhooks API reference documenting the BetaWebhookEvent model and all supported event types. Covers lifecycle events for sessions (session.created, session.pending, session.running, session.idled, session.requires_action, session.archived, session.deleted), session status transitions, session threads (session.thread_created, session.thread_idled, session.thread_terminated), session outcome evaluation, and vault/vault credential events. Includes an unwrap utility function for parsing webhook payloads.

manage-claude/api-and-data-retention [Source]

New manage-claude documentation section consolidates API management content previously spread across build-with-claude. Includes: API and data retention policies (ZDR scope, HIPAA readiness, per-feature eligibility table), authentication, Claude Code analytics API, data residency, rate limits API, usage cost API, workspaces, and workload identity federation (with provider-specific guides for AWS, Azure, GCP, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, Okta, and SPIFFE).

Changed documents

api/beta [Source]

• New managed-agents-2026-04-01 beta header value added to the AnthropicBeta enum (count increased from 20 to 21). [line 77] [Source]
• BetaCitationContentBlockLocation fields now include detailed descriptions: cited_text explains the concatenated block range text; start_block_index clarifies it is 0-based; end_block_index clarifies it is exclusive with end = start + 1 for single-block citations.
• BetaCitationSearchResultLocation.search_result_index now documents that it is 0-based and counted separately from document_index (server-side web search results excluded).

api/beta/agents/create [Source]

• New optional multiagent request parameter of type coordinator enables a multi-agent topology where the agent orchestrates work by spawning session threads, each running an agent drawn from a roster. [diff]
• The agents roster supports 1–20 entries: agent ID strings, versioned {"type":"agent","id","version"} references, or {"type":"self"} for recursive self-invocation. Referenced agents must not themselves have multiagent set (depth limit 1).
• BetaManagedAgentsAgent response object now includes a multiagent field returning the resolved coordinator topology with concrete agent references (each pinned to a specific version).

api/beta/sessions/create [Source]

• Session response objects now include a multiagent field documenting the resolved coordinator topology (mirrors the new agent multiagent field). [diff]
• New managed-agents-2026-04-01 beta flag documented on this endpoint.