ktg-plugin-marketplace/plugins/config-audit/knowledge/feature-evolution.md
Kjell Tore Guttormsen 52d16d8711 docs(config-audit): refresh knowledge/ from Topic 2 Claude Code changelog research
Add 2026-04 deltas (v2.1.83-v2.1.111) verified against
research/03-claude-code-changes-config-surfaces.md (2026-04-19):
- Opus 4.7 + token-efficiency surfaces (env vars, attribution.commit/pr)
- Sandbox isolation (sandbox.* keys)
- Managed-only enterprise lockdown flags
- disableSkillShellExecution (v2.1.91)
- forceRemoteSettingsRefresh (v2.1.92)

No new hook events in this range — noted in hook-events-reference.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-19 22:52:11 +02:00

7.5 KiB

Claude Code Feature Evolution

Timeline of major features, most recent first. Covers features with configuration impact. Source: Official Claude Code documentation, verified 2026-04-03; 2026-04 entries verified via research/03-claude-code-changes-config-surfaces.md (2026-04-19).


2026

Approx. Date Feature Config Impact
2026-04 (v2.1.111) Opus 4.7 + token-efficiency surfaces New env vars ENABLE_PROMPT_CACHING_1H, FORCE_PROMPT_CACHING_5M, CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_1M_CONTEXT. New settings keys around tui / autoScrollEnabled. Granular commit attribution via attribution.commit / attribution.pr (replaces includeCoAuthoredBy).
2026-04 (v2.1.83+) Sandbox + managed-only enterprise lockdown Added settings keys: sandbox.enabled, sandbox.failIfUnavailable, sandbox.allowUnsandboxedCommands, sandbox.filesystem.allowRead/denyRead, sandbox.network.deniedDomains/allowedDomains, sandbox.enableWeakerNetworkIsolation. Managed-only flags: allowManagedHooksOnly, allowManagedMcpServersOnly, allowManagedPermissionRulesOnly.
2026-03 (v2.1.91) disableSkillShellExecution Blocks inline !command shell expansion in skills. Mitigates skill-side prompt-injection vector.
2026-03 (v2.1.92) forceRemoteSettingsRefresh Fail-closed on managed-settings fetch failure (previously fail-open).
Q1 2026 Agent Teams (experimental) Enable via CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 or env in settings.json. Configure display mode via ~/.claude.json teammateMode. Hooks: TeammateIdle, TaskCreated, TaskCompleted.
Q1 2026 Elicitation events Elicitation and ElicitationResult hook events added. MCP servers can request user input; hooks control and log these requests.
Q1 2026 SubagentStart / SubagentStop hooks Added hook events for subagent lifecycle. SubagentStop is blocking — exit code 2 acts as a quality gate.
Q1 2026 ConfigChange hook event Fires when any config file changes on disk. Matcher: user_settings, project_settings, local_settings, policy_settings, skills.
Q1 2026 InstructionsLoaded hook event Fires when CLAUDE.md/.claude/rules files load. Useful for debugging instruction loading order and content.
Q1 2026 StopFailure / PostToolUseFailure hooks Error-path hooks added for better error observability and retry logic.
Q1 2026 WorktreeCreate / WorktreeRemove hooks WorktreeCreate is blocking; hook can return custom worktree path to replace Claude's default git worktree logic. Enables non-git VCS support.
Q1 2026 PermissionDenied hook Info-only event when auto mode denies a tool. Useful for logging and auditing denied operations.
Q1 2026 SessionEnd hook Fires on session termination. Matcher: clear, resume, logout, prompt_input_exit, other.
Q1 2026 HTTP hook type type: "http" hook handler posts to HTTP endpoints. allowedHttpHookUrls and httpHookAllowedEnvVars settings for security controls.
Q1 2026 Agent-type hooks type: "agent" hook handler — full subagent with tools for complex validation.

2025

Approx. Date Feature Config Impact
Late 2025 Plugins system Namespaced skill/agent/hook/MCP bundles. enabledPlugins in settings.json. Plugin marketplace support. --plugin-dir for development. /reload-plugins command. bin/ for CLI tools.
Late 2025 LSP plugins .lsp.json at plugin root provides real-time code intelligence. Official LSP plugins for TypeScript, Python, Rust, etc.
Late 2025 Output styles outputStyle setting; ~/.claude/output-styles/*.md and .claude/output-styles/*.md. System prompt modification (stronger than CLAUDE.md). Built-in: Default, Explanatory, Learning.
Late 2025 Status line statusLine key in settings.json. Script receives stdin JSON with cost, context window %, model, worktree, session info. /statusline command for natural language config.
Late 2025 Skills system (v2) Major expansion of frontmatter fields: context: fork, disable-model-invocation, user-invocable, paths, hooks, shell. !command`` dynamic context. $ARGUMENTS[N] indexing.
Late 2025 Subagent isolation: worktree isolation: worktree in agent frontmatter. Each invocation gets own git worktree. Auto-cleaned on completion.
Late 2025 Subagent persistent memory memory: "user" in agent frontmatter. Accumulates knowledge to ~/.claude/agent-memory/.
Late 2025 Subagent preloaded skills skills: array in agent frontmatter. Full skill content injected at agent startup (vs. description-only in regular sessions).
Mid 2025 Worktrees claude --worktree <name> CLI flag. .worktreeinclude for gitignored file propagation. worktree.symlinkDirectories and worktree.sparsePaths settings.
Mid 2025 MCP integration .mcp.json project-level config. ~/.claude.json mcpServers. Three server types: stdio, http, sse. Resources via @server:path. Prompts as slash commands.
Mid 2025 Auto-memory ~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/MEMORY.md. autoMemoryEnabled setting. autoMemoryDirectory for custom path. Topic files loaded on demand.
Mid 2025 Managed settings managed-settings.json, managed-settings.d/*.json. Org-wide config at highest precedence. Managed-only keys for enterprise lockdown.
Mid 2025 PreCompact/PostCompact hooks Hooks for context compaction lifecycle. Matcher: manual, auto.
Early 2025 Hooks system (v1) Initial hooks in settings.json. Events: SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse, PermissionRequest, PostToolUse, Stop, Notification, CwdChanged, FileChanged, PreCompact, PostCompact. command and prompt handler types.
Early 2025 .claude/rules/ directory Path-specific rules with paths: frontmatter. Lazy loading — only loads when Claude works on matching files.
Early 2025 Keybindings ~/.claude/keybindings.json. JSON Schema available. Chord support. Vim mode. 20+ contexts and 40+ bindable actions.
Early 2025 CLAUDE.local.md Project-local personal companion file. Gitignored. Appended after CLAUDE.md.
Early 2025 Extended thinking alwaysThinkingEnabled setting. effortLevel (low/medium/high/max). MAX_THINKING_TOKENS env var.
Early 2025 Auto mode autoMode object in settings.json (user/local only). environment, allow, soft_deny arrays. disableAutoMode setting.

2024

Approx. Date Feature Config Impact
Late 2024 Subagents (v1) .claude/agents/<name>.md. ~/.claude/agents/. Frontmatter: model, tools, disallowedTools, permissionMode, color, maxTurns.
Late 2024 Skills system (v1) ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Legacy .claude/commands/<name>.md also supported. Basic frontmatter.
Mid 2024 @import in CLAUDE.md @path/to/file syntax for modular CLAUDE.md. Max 5 hops. HTML comment stripping.
Mid 2024 settings.json .claude/settings.json (project), ~/.claude/settings.json (user), .claude/settings.local.json (local). Permissions, env, hooks.
Early 2024 CLAUDE.md Initial project-level instructions. User-level ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md. Lazy loading of subdirectory files. Directory walk.