What changed
Claude Code 2.1.205 shipped on July 8, 2026. Auto mode adds safety rules — blocking tampering with session transcript files and asking before a risky rm -rf — while background agents and the agent view now reflect real session state more accurately. /doctor grows into a full checkup that can diagnose and fix issues, and the release lands memory savings in the auto-updater plus fixes across Windows crashes and session-to-PR linking.
New features
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/doctoris now a full setup checkup (/checkupalias)/doctorpreviously only reported on configuration state, so when it surfaced a problem you had to fix it yourself./doctoris now a full setup checkup that can diagnose and fix issues, and it can also be run as/checkup.
Key improvements
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Auto mode asks before running
rm -rfon an unresolvable variableWhen auto mode ran
rm -rfon a variable whose value it couldn’t determine, it risked deleting an unexpected location instead of the intended path. Auto mode now asks before runningrm -rfon a variable it can’t resolve from context. -
Auto mode blocks tampering with session transcript files
Session transcripts are the record of what actually happened in a conversation, but nothing prevented them from being edited out from under you. Auto mode now includes a rule that blocks tampering with session transcript files.
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Auto-update downloads stream to disk (~400 MB lower peak memory)
The auto-updater buffered the entire new binary in memory before writing it to disk, spiking memory usage during an update. Auto-update binary downloads now stream to disk instead of buffering in memory, cutting the updater’s peak memory usage by roughly 400 MB.
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Background task notifications state that no human input occurred
A background task notification alone didn’t make clear whether a human had approved anything, leaving room for a fabricated in-transcript approval to be treated as real. Notifications now explicitly state that no human input has occurred, preventing fabricated in-transcript approvals from being acted on.
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Agent view links more existing-PR sessions
Session-to-PR linking in
claude agentsonly caught certain cases. Sessions that edit, merge, comment on, or push to an existing PR now link it inclaude agents. -
Agent view shows a state word and a headline instead of raw tool calls
Each agent view row showed raw tool call text, making status hard to read at a glance. Rows now show a colored state word and a classifier-written headline instead of raw tool call text, and the peek opens with full status including the exact ask for blocked sessions.
Bug fixes
Sessions and output
--json-schemasilently produced unstructured output when the schema was invalid — this, along with schemas using theformatkeyword being rejected, is now fixed.- A message sent while Claude was working was silently lost when the turn ended at the
--max-turnslimit — fixed. - Session-to-PR linking missed a PR created in a Bash call whose output exceeded the 30K inline limit — fixed.
Background agents
- Background agents stayed shown as “failed” or “completed” in the agent list after being resumed with
SendMessage— fixed. - Background jobs flipped from “needs input” back to “working” in the agent list when the agent’s turn contained no readable text — fixed.
claude attacherroring when a background agent was mid-upgrade restart instead of waiting for it to come back — fixed.- Background tasks in the web and mobile Remote Control panels showed a stale “Running” status — fixed by forwarding full task state on every membership change.
MCP and plugins
claude mcp add-from-claude-desktopgot stuck when a server name contained unsupported characters — invalid names are now reported and the remaining servers still import.- A plugin LSP server that fails to initialize prevented a valid LSP server from another plugin from handling the same file extension — fixed.
Terminal and platform
- Windows worktree removal deleted files outside the worktree when an NTFS junction or directory symlink existed inside it — fixed.
- A Windows crash when the directory Claude was launched from is deleted, locked, or unmounted while a command was running — fixed.
- A crash when a file watcher was closed while a directory scan was still in flight — fixed.
- The agent view rendered one line too high and clipped its header when the job list slightly overflowed the screen — fixed.
- Project verify skills were rewritten on every session instead of only when a documented command changed — fixed.
Cowork
- Cowork VM-mode local-agent sessions failed to start with “Not logged in · Please run /login” on CLI 2.1.203+ — fixed.
Notes
/doctorand/checkupare the same tool — the expanded full setup checkup runs under either name.- “Claude Browser” MCP server name reserved — ahead of the Claude Desktop pane rename, “Claude Browser” is now reserved alongside “Claude Preview”; user-configured MCP servers can no longer register under either name.
rm -rfconfirmation in auto mode — auto mode now asks before runningrm -rfon a variable it can’t resolve from context, guarding against a broad deletion caused by an empty or unexpected variable value.