AI Frontier Labs Release Notes Podcast

v2.1.143: plugin dependency enforcement on enable/disable, PowerShell tool on by default for Windows Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry users with ExecutionPolicy Bypass, worktree.bgIsolation escape hatch, no more rm -rf cleanup fallback, 8-block stop-hook circuit breaker, and /bg now preserves MCP/settings/permissions config.

Show Notes

Source: CHANGELOG.md — v2.1.143.

Plugin dependency enforcement. claude plugin disable now refuses if another enabled plugin depends on the target, and prints a copy-pasteable disable chain. claude plugin enable force-enables transitive dependencies automatically. End of silent breakage when plugins depend on each other.

PowerShell on by default for Bedrock / Vertex / Foundry on Windows. The PowerShell tool is now enabled by default for cloud-provider variants on Windows, and runs with -ExecutionPolicy Bypass so scripts don't trip on the default Restricted policy. Opt out with CLAUDE_CODE_USE_POWERSHELL_TOOL=0; keep the policy restrictive with CLAUDE_CODE_POWERSHELL_RESPECT_EXECUTION_POLICY=1.

worktree.bgIsolation: "none" tells background sessions to skip the per-session git worktree dance and edit the working copy directly. For repos where worktrees are impractical — submodules, mixed VCS, build artifacts that don't survive relative-path moves. Trade-off: parallel sessions can now stomp each other's edits.

Worktree cleanup no longer falls back to rm -rf. When git worktree remove fails — usually gitignored files, in-progress edits, stuck index locks — Claude Code used to rm -rf the directory. Now it stops and surfaces the error. No more silent loss of WIP work.

Stop-hook circuit breaker. Stop hooks that keep blocking the end of a turn now get cut off after 8 consecutive blocks, with a warning. Tune the threshold with CLAUDE_CODE_STOP_HOOK_BLOCK_CAP. Prevents a stuck hook from pinning the session forever.

/bg and detach preserve session config. Backgrounding a session — via /bg or ←-detach from agent view — now preserves --mcp-config, --settings, --add-dir, --plugin-dir, --strict-mcp-config, --fallback-model, and --allow-dangerously-skip-permissions. Background sessions launched from claude agents also now honor permissions.defaultMode from settings.json instead of being force-overridden to auto mode.

Not in this episode: 29 bug fixes including the macOS Documents/Desktop/Downloads permission error, corrupted credentials hanging the CLI, IDE file-reference leak into warm spares, Windows ← keystroke hangs, plus follow-up clarifications to features covered in episode 28.

  • (00:00) - Plugin dependency enforcement
  • (01:02) - PowerShell defaults on Windows
  • (01:55) - worktree.bgIsolation escape hatch
  • (02:34) - Worktree cleanup: no more rm -rf
  • (03:22) - Stop-hook circuit breaker
  • (03:52) - /bg preserves session config

What is AI Frontier Labs Release Notes Podcast?

Each episode breaks down the latest release notes from AI frontier labs, so you know exactly what changed and why it matters for your workflow.

NOTE: This podcast is AI-generated, both in terms of content and in terms of voice over. AI can make mistakes. Please double-check content before any decisions based on this content.