Week 32 · August 3–7, 2026
Claude Code sessions message each other, self-hosted environments run cloud sessions on your infrastructure, and auto mode becomes the default permission mode.
Releases v2.1.220 → v2.1.224 3 features · August 3–7
Cross-session messaging v2.1.224
Your Claude Code sessions can now message each other. Claude discovers your other sessions with the ListAgents tool and sends with SendMessage, either when you ask it to or on its own, such as after a change in one session affects what another is working on. A message is text Claude writes for the other session, never your conversation history or files. Available on macOS and Linux. Requires v2.1.224 or later.
With two sessions open on the same machine, ask one of them to pass something along:
Tell the session working on the payments API that users.name is now users.display_name
The other session shows a Message from row once Claude has read the message; press Ctrl+O to expand it. To see which sessions Claude can reach, run /list-agents.
Self-hosted environments v2.1.224
Self-hosted environments run Claude Code cloud sessions on your organization's own infrastructure, in public beta on Team and Enterprise plans. Run claude self-hosted-runner on your machines or containers to turn them into runners. When someone picks your environment while starting a session from claude.ai, the mobile or desktop apps, or claude --cloud, that session runs inside your network, with access to your internal services. An Owner turns on Allow self-hosted environments in admin settings first.
Signed in as an Owner, run the guided setup, which walks you through creating the environment and starts a runner:
claude self-hosted-runner setup
The environment shows Healthy in admin settings once the runner registers.
Self-hosted environments quickstart
Auto mode becomes the default CLI
Starting August 14, auto mode is the default permission mode for new sessions on Pro, Max, and Team plans. If you set a default mode yourself, it stays in place unless you accept the one-time switch prompt, and a default your organization manages doesn't change. You can still switch modes at any time. Already in effect on those plans: the classifier calls auto mode makes no longer count toward your usage limits.
To start every session in auto mode before the switch, set it as your default in your user settings:
{
"permissions": {
"defaultMode": "auto"
}
}
New sessions then show auto mode on in the status bar.
Auto mode requirements and controls
Other wins
The VS Code extension gets Focus view, which hides tool activity behind one expandable row per turn; toggle it from the command menu or with Ctrl+Alt+F (Ctrl+Option+F on Mac)Sandbox credential files accept mode: "mask" on Linux and WSL2, so sandboxed commands read a sentinel copy while the sandbox proxy substitutes the real value on egress; credential masking also gains extract, JWT-aware decode, and AWS SigV4 re-signing optionsMarketplaces can distribute a plugin as a zip archive with the new archive source, downloaded over HTTPS with an optional SHA-256 pin, so installs work without git or npm/review is now an alias of /code-review, and /code-review with no effort level reuses the level you typed lastA session you copy with /fork now makes its code changes in a worktree of its own instead of the original session's checkoutPlugins you install from /plugin activate in the current session when it's safe to do so; the install summary reports Plugin is now active. or tells you to run /reload-pluginsBackground sessions that changed code in a worktree now commit and push before finishing, open a draft pull request only when the task calls for one, and follow the git instructions in your CLAUDE.mdThe 200-subagent-per-session cap is removed, so long-running sessions no longer refuse new subagents; the concurrency and depth limits still applyA repository's checked-in settings can no longer turn on Remote Control auto-connect; set remoteControlAtStartup in your user or managed settings instead, and project and local settings can only turn it offWorktree isolation now blocks not only file edits but also Bash commands and git redirects that reach the main checkout, in every session type and in the session's subagentsA Bash command can no longer hide part of itself from permission checks, and tab or invisible-Unicode padding no longer hides part of a command from the approval dialogPreToolUse auto-allow hooks no longer bypass tool restrictions in Claude Code's internal side tasks such as summaries and compactionThe Ultraplan research preview is removed, including the /ultraplan command and the ultraplan keyword; use plan mode or Claude Code on the web instead