The most useful agent updates are not always new models. A search that reports a real error, a worktree that preserves unfinished work and a session that resumes correctly can matter more to an ordinary development day.
Changes from this week
Claude Code 2.1.299, published on 14 October, documents idle compaction for large terminal conversations. Release 2.1.301 on 15 October fixes a case where quitting could remove a hook-created worktree without asking despite possible unpushed commits. It also changes Grep and Glob to report unexpected search-program failures as errors rather than empty results.
Version 2.1.302 on 16 October adds an idle-compaction control to /config and fixes some plugin configuration writes being lost when commands exit. These are specific release-note changes, not a claim that every long-session problem is resolved.
Distinguish no matches from a failed search
This is particularly relevant in a workspace containing several projects. If an agent says a function or setting does not exist, I want to know where it searched and whether the search completed. A tool failure cannot establish absence.
Ask for the search scope and the error when the result is surprising. Check the repository and branch before expanding the search. That keeps a small investigation from drifting into unrelated projects simply because the first command failed.
Keep important decisions outside the chat
Compaction helps manage long conversations, but I still want the task's durable state written down: the objective, current branch, relevant commits, checks run and next step. If the conversation is summarised or resumed, those facts remain inspectable.
Do not treat a compacted summary as stronger evidence than the working tree. Read the current files and Git status before continuing. Another session may have made progress since the note was written.
Check your installation route
claude --versionCompare that output with the release you intend to use. The current Claude setup guide says native installations update automatically, while package-manager installations have their own update commands. Follow the instructions for the way you installed it rather than mixing installers to force an update.
Try a small recovery exercise
Use a disposable project to check that you can resume a session, identify its working directory and recover its notes. If your workflow uses worktree hooks, verify what happens when a session ends with work still present. Keep valuable work backed by Git and inspect it before removing a worktree.
These fixes support a habit I already want in both Claude and Codex: preserve the work, report failures honestly and leave enough evidence for the next session to continue.