Claude-Code v2.1.97 Release: NO_FLICKER Improvements, Permission Fixes, and MCP Updates

Release Overview

Claude-Code v2.1.97 includes significant improvements to the NO_FLICKER mode interface, permission system hardening, and fixes for MCP (Model Context Protocol) connections. This release addresses memory leaks, transcript persistence issues, and various UI bugs across different terminal environments.

Key Features and Changes

NO_FLICKER Mode Enhancements

• Added focus view toggle (Ctrl+O) showing prompt, one-line tool summary with edit diffstats, and final response
• Fixed copying wrapped URLs inserting spaces at line breaks
• Fixed scroll rendering artifacts when running inside zellij
• Fixed crash when hovering over MCP tool results
• Fixed memory leak where API retries left stale streaming state
• Fixed slow mouse-wheel scrolling on Windows Terminal
• Fixed custom status line not displaying on terminals shorter than 24 rows
• Fixed Shift+Enter and Alt/Cmd+arrow shortcuts not working in Warp
• Fixed Korean/Japanese/Unicode text becoming garbled when copied on Windows

Permission System Fixes

• Fixed --dangerously-skip-permissions being silently downgraded to accept-edits mode after approving a write to a protected path
• Hardened Bash tool permissions, tightening checks around env-var prefixes and network redirects
• Reduced false prompts on common commands
• Fixed permission rules with names matching JavaScript prototype properties (e.g. toString) causing settings.json to be silently ignored
• Fixed managed-settings allow rules remaining active after admin removal until process restart
• Fixed permissions.additionalDirectories changes in settings not applying mid-session
• Fixed removing a directory from settings.permissions.additionalDirectories revoking access to the same directory passed via --add-dir

MCP Connection Improvements

• Fixed MCP HTTP/SSE connections accumulating ~50 MB/hr of unreleased buffers when servers reconnect
• Fixed MCP OAuth oauth.authServerMetadataUrl not being honored on token refresh after restart, fixing ADFS and similar IdPs
• Fixed 429 retries burning all attempts in ~13 seconds when the server returns a small Retry-After — exponential backoff now applies as a minimum

Status Line and Workspace Updates

• Added refreshInterval status line setting to re-run the status line command every N seconds
• Added workspace.git_worktree to the status line JSON input, set when the current directory is inside a linked git worktree
• Added ● N running indicator in /agents next to agent types with live subagent instances

Other Notable Fixes and Improvements

• Added syntax highlighting for Cedar policy files (.cedar, .cedarpolicy)
• Fixed rate-limit upgrade options disappearing after context compaction
• Fixed several /resume picker issues including cache misses, lost mid-turn input, and file-edit diffs disappearing for files larger than 10KB
• Fixed messages typed while Claude is working not being persisted to the transcript
• Fixed prompt-type Stop / SubagentStop hooks failing on long sessions
• Fixed subagents with worktree isolation or cwd: override leaking their working directory back to the parent session's Bash tool
• Fixed compaction writing duplicate multi-MB subagent transcript files on prompt-too-long retries
• Fixed claude plugin update reporting "already at the latest version" for git-based marketplace plugins when the remote had newer commits
• Fixed slash command picker breaking when a plugin's frontmatter name is a YAML boolean keyword
• Fixed Bedrock SigV4 authentication failing when AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK or ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL are set to empty strings (as GitHub Actions does for unset inputs)
• Improved Accept Edits mode to auto-approve filesystem commands prefixed with safe env vars or process wrappers (e.g. LANG=C rm foo, timeout 5 mkdir out)
• Improved auto mode and bypass-permissions mode to auto-approve sandbox network access prompts
• Improved sandbox: sandbox.network.allowMachLookup now takes effect on macOS
• Improved image handling: pasted and attached images are now compressed to the same token budget as images read via the Read tool
• Improved slash command and @-mention completion to trigger after CJK sentence punctuation

Who This Affects

This release is relevant for developers using Claude-Code with NO_FLICKER mode, working with MCP connections, managing complex permission configurations, or experiencing issues with transcript persistence and subagent management.