Claude Code — May 2026 Releases
27 releases in May 2026.
What's new in Claude Code, May 2026
Claude Code adds agent view, /goal, dynamic workflows and Opus 4.8 support
Claude Code's May 2026 releases added a way to manage many sessions at once, plus a new top model. Agent view (Research Preview, run claude agents) lists every session that is running, blocked on you, or done, and background sessions can be reopened with /resume. /goal keeps Claude working across turns until a completion condition is met. v2.1.154 added Opus 4.8, which defaults to high effort with /effort xhigh available, and dynamic workflows that orchestrate many background agents (view them with /workflows). Twenty-seven releases shipped, from v2.1.128 to v2.1.159.
Plugins got most of the other work: claude plugin details, dependency enforcement on enable and disable, claude plugin init, and automatic loading of plugins in .claude/skills. /simplify was renamed /code-review and later reworked so that /code-review --fix applies findings. Hooks gained new fields and events, and /usage now breaks down limit consumption by skills, subagents, plugins and MCP servers. Several releases were fixes or internal changes, including Windows, PowerShell permission and sandbox fixes.
- Agent view (Research Preview): claude agents lists all sessions; --json, --cwd and dispatch flags followed in later releases (v2.1.139, v2.1.141, v2.1.142, v2.1.145)
- /goal sets a completion condition and Claude keeps working across turns until it is met (v2.1.139)
- Opus 4.8 with high effort by default and /effort xhigh; dynamic workflows via /workflows (v2.1.154)
- Auto mode on Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry for Opus 4.7 and 4.8 with CLAUDECODEENABLEAUTOMODE=1 (v2.1.158)
- /code-review replaces /simplify, with --fix and --comment options; /simplify was later reworked (v2.1.147, v2.1.152, v2.1.154)
- Plugin updates: claude plugin init, dependency enforcement, auto-loading from .claude/skills (v2.1.143, v2.1.157)
Upgrading from v2.1.126? See every change through v2.1.159.
- v2.1.159 (May 31, 2026) — - Internal infrastructure improvements (no user-facing changes)
- v2.1.158 (May 30, 2026) — - Auto mode is now available on Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry for Opus 4.7 and Opus 4.8. Opt in by setting CLAUDECODEENABLEAUTOMODE=1
- v2.1.157 (May 29, 2026) — - Plugins in .claude/skills directories are now automatically loaded, no marketplace required - Added claude plugin init <name> to scaffold a new plug
- v2.1.156 (May 28, 2026) — - Fixed an issue when using Opus 4.8 where thinking blocks were modified, leading to API errors.
- v2.1.154 (May 28, 2026) — - Opus 4.8 is here! Now defaults to high effort · /effort xhigh for your hardest tasks - Introducing dynamic workflows: ask Claude to create a workflo
- v2.1.153 (May 27, 2026) — - Added skipLfs option to github/git plugin marketplace sources to skip Git LFS downloads during clone and update - Claude Code now shows a one-time n
- v2.1.152 (May 26, 2026) — - /code-review --fix now applies review findings to your working tree after the review, surfacing reuse, simplification, and efficiency suggestions; /
- v2.1.150 (May 23, 2026) — - Internal infrastructure improvements (no user-facing changes)
- v2.1.149 (May 22, 2026) — - /usage now shows a per-category breakdown of what's driving your limits usage — skills, subagents, plugins, and per-MCP-server cost - /diff detail v
- v2.1.148 (May 22, 2026) — - Fixed the Bash tool returning exit code 127 on every command for some users (a regression introduced in 2.1.147)
- v2.1.147 (May 21, 2026) — - Pinned background sessions (Ctrl+T in claude agents) now stay alive when idle, are restarted in place to apply Claude Code updates, and are shed und
- v2.1.146 (May 20, 2026) — - Renamed /simplify to /code-review with an optional effort level (e.g. /code-review high) - Auto mode no longer suppresses AskUserQuestion when the u
- v2.1.145 (May 19, 2026) — - Added claude agents --json to list live Claude sessions as JSON for scripting (tmux-resurrect, status bars, session pickers) - Added agentid and par
- v2.1.144 (May 18, 2026) — - Added /resume support for background sessions — sessions started via claude --bg or agent view now appear alongside interactive ones, marked with bg
- v2.1.143 (May 15, 2026) — - Added plugin dependency enforcement: claude plugin disable now refuses when another enabled plugin depends on the target (with a copy-pasteable disa
- v2.1.142 (May 14, 2026) — - Added new claude agents flags: --add-dir, --settings, --mcp-config, --plugin-dir, --permission-mode, --model, --effort, and --dangerously-skip-permi
- v2.1.141 (May 13, 2026) — - Added terminalSequence field to hook JSON output so hooks can emit desktop notifications, window titles, and bells without a controlling terminal -
- v2.1.140 (May 12, 2026) — - Improved Agent tool subagenttype matching to accept case- and separator-insensitive values (e.g. "Code Reviewer" resolves to code-reviewer) - Update
- v2.1.139 (May 11, 2026) — - Added agent view (Research Preview): a single list of every Claude Code session — running, blocked on you, or done. Run claude agents to get started
- v2.1.138 (May 9, 2026) — - Internal fixes
- v2.1.137 (May 9, 2026) — - [VSCode] Fixed extension failing to activate on Windows
- v2.1.136 (May 8, 2026) — - Added CLAUDECODEENABLEFEEDBACKSURVEYFOROTEL to re-enable the session quality survey for enterprises capturing responses through OpenTelemetry - Adde
- v2.1.133 (May 7, 2026) — - Added worktree.baseRef setting (fresh | head) to choose whether --worktree, EnterWorktree, and agent-isolation worktrees branch from origin/<default
- v2.1.132 (May 6, 2026) — - Added CLAUDECODESESSIONID environment variable to the Bash tool subprocess environment, matching the sessionid passed to hooks - Added CLAUDECODEDIS
- v2.1.131 (May 6, 2026) — - Fixed VS Code extension failing to activate on Windows due to a hardcoded build path in the bundled SDK (createRequire polyfill bug) - Fixed Mantle
- v2.1.129 (May 5, 2026) — - Added --plugin-url <url> flag to fetch a plugin .
- v2.1.128 (May 4, 2026) — - Bare /color (no args) now picks a random session color - /mcp now shows the tool count for connected servers and flags servers that connected with 0