Claude Code v2.1.129: Plugin URL flag, force sync output, and 20+ fixes

Claude Code v2.1.129 ships today with several new flags, env vars, and a heap of bug fixes — including a nasty /context command that was silently burning ~1.6k tokens per call. Here's what matters.

New flags and env vars

• --plugin-url <url> — load a plugin .zip from a remote URL for the current session. No manual download required.
• CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_SYNC_OUTPUT=1 — forces synchronized output on terminals that auto-detection misses (e.g., Emacs eat).
• CLAUDE_CODE_PACKAGE_MANAGER_AUTO_UPDATE — when set on Homebrew or WinGet installs, Claude Code runs the upgrade command in the background and prompts to restart. No more manual brew upgrade & restart dance.
• CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1 — opt-in for /v1/models discovery in the /model picker. Was automatic in 2.1.126–2.1.128; now opt-in to avoid surprises with gateway deployments.

Plugin manifests: experimental namespace

themes and monitors in plugin manifests should now be declared under "experimental": { ... }. Top-level declarations still work but claude plugin validate will warn. Migrate your manifests to keep clean validation.

skillOverrides now works

The skillOverrides setting actually does something now:

• off — hides the skill from both model and / command list
• user-invocable-only — hides from model, still visible in /
• name-only — collapses the description

Behavior changes

• Ctrl+R history picker now searches across all projects by default (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 show spinner tips pointing at first-party Anthropic surfaces.
• claude_code.pull_request.count OTel metric now counts PRs/MRs created via MCP tools, not just shell commands.
• Policy refusal error messages include the API Request ID for easier debugging.

Bug fixes that matter

• /context no longer dumps its rendered ASCII visualization grid into the conversation — was wasting ~1.6k tokens per call.
• 1-hour prompt cache TTL was silently downgraded to 5 minutes — now fixed.
• Cache-miss warning after /clear or compaction when changing /effort or /model — spurious warnings gone.
• External-editor handoff (Ctrl+G) blanking conversation history — fixed.
• Bash(mkdir *), Bash(touch *) allow rules not honored for in-project paths — now respected.
• deniedMcpServers patterns with *:// scheme wildcard not matching mixed-case hostnames — fixed.
• OAuth refresh race after wake-from-sleep that could log out all running sessions — fixed.
• Server-managed settings policy not applying for users whose stored OAuth credentials lacked the user:inference scope — now enforced.
• Agent panel below prompt hidden when subagents are running (regression in 2.1.122) — restored.
• /clear not resetting terminal tab title after a conversation — fixed.
• API errors with unrecognized 400 status codes showed raw JSON instead of the underlying error message — now properly parsed.

VSCode fix

/clear in VSCode extension now correctly clears both the conversation context and the displayed transcript.

Upgrade via brew upgrade claude-code or winget upgrade. Full changelog in the release.