4 Claude Code Updates You Probably Missed: The Links
Get the official link for each of the four Claude Code updates from the reel, plus who gets it and how to try it today.
Back to all free guidesSo in the reel I showed four Claude Code updates that, to be honest, most people missed. Here's the official link for each one, plus who gets it and how to try it today. They all landed between August and the start of October, so if one doesn't show up for you, update Claude Code first. Type claude --version in your terminal to see which version you're on.
1. Computer use runs in the background
- What it is. Claude can see and use the apps you've approved on your Mac while you carry on working in other windows. Outside background mode, Claude hides your other windows while it works, so this is basically it getting out of your way.
- Who gets it. Pro and Max plans, in the Claude desktop app on macOS. It came out in the week of 31 August.
- Turn it on. In the desktop app, go to Settings > This computer > System, and under Computer use switch on Enable computer use.
- Allow two Mac permissions. It needs Accessibility, so Claude can click, type and scroll, and Screen Recording, so it can see your screen. If either one shows as denied on that Settings page, click it and it opens the right bit of System Settings.
- Approve your apps. The first time Claude needs an app, a prompt pops up in your session. Click Allow for this session and it can use that app until the session ends.
- The links. Anthropic's computer use setup has the full steps and the Week 36 digest has the announcement. No desktop app yet? It's at claude.com/download.
2. Your sessions can message each other
- What it is. One Claude Code session can send another one a message, like something it found or a decision it made, so you're not copying and pasting between terminals like I used to. Claude writes the message itself, and the other session reads it between steps, or picks it up straight away if it's sitting idle.
- Who gets it. It works on Mac, Linux and Windows, and there's nothing to switch on. You need Claude Code v2.1.224 or newer on Mac and Linux, or v2.1.234 or newer on Windows. It launched in the week of 3 August.
- Try it. Open two sessions on the same machine and ask one of them to pass something along. You can also type
@and the first letters of a session's name to pick it from a list, which needs v2.1.232 or newer. - See who it can reach. Run
/list-agentsand you get every session Claude can message right now. Give a session an easy name with/renameso it's quicker to point at. - The links. Anthropic's cross-session messaging guide and the launch write-up in the Week 32 digest.
Paste this into one session and put the other session's name on the last line:
Explain what we just did to my other session below, so it knows before it carries on.
Session:3. /skill-doctor
- What it is. A command that shows you what each of your skills costs in context and how often you actually use it. Every skill in your list adds to your context on every turn, even if Claude never touches it, so this tells you which ones to bin.
- What the report shows. It flags the skills that have never been used and tells you where to turn each one off. It lists plugins you haven't used lately too. Start with the ones that cost the most context.
- Who gets it. It's built into Claude Code from v2.1.252, and it came out in the same week as background computer use.
- Run it. Type it into Claude Code and the report opens in the Stats tab of the
/pluginmanager. Run it with-pand it prints as plain text instead. - The link. The /skill-doctor section of the skills docs, with the launch note in the Week 36 digest.
/skill-doctor4. Claude Mods
- What it is. A mod is a plugin that changes how Claude Code itself looks and behaves. It can add a pane next to the chat, a bar above the prompt, your own slash commands, or rules that step in on a tool call before it runs, which is pretty sweet if you like tinkering with your setup.
- Who gets it. Mods are on by default from Claude Code v2.1.287 in the terminal, which came out on 1 October, and from v2.1.286 in the Code tab of the Claude desktop app.
- Make one by asking. Describe the mod you want in a Claude Code session and Claude writes it with its built-in plugin-authoring skill. Approve the files as they come up, then pick Enable for this session and the mod loads when Claude finishes its turn.
- Check it loaded. Run
/pluginand go to the Installed tab. Your mod is listed there, and you can turn it off from the same place. - Try a ready-made one. Anthropic shares a few sample mods in its claude-code-playground repo on GitHub, like token-weather, which draws a forecast of your context window above the prompt.
- The links. Anthropic's mods overview, the step-by-step guide to asking Claude for one and the v2.1.287 changelog.
This is the example from Anthropic's own docs, so paste it as it is or swap in your own idea:
Make a mod that shows the current git branch above the promptTo be honest, I'd start with /skill-doctor, it's the quickest one to try and you'll probably find a few skills you literally forgot you had.