Claude Code v2.1.284 Adds Sonnet 5.5 Default, /mcp reconnect all, and Gateway Spend Tracking

Claude Code v2.1.284 is out, and the headline change is a model swap: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (claude-sonnet-5-5) is now the default Sonnet model on the Anthropic API. It runs a 1M-token context window at $2/$10 per Mtok with $0.20/Mtok cache reads.

New commands and keybindings

• /mcp reconnect all — retries every MCP server that failed to connect or needs authentication, in one shot, from the interactive terminal.
• effortSlider:decreaseEffort, effortSlider:increaseEffort, and effortSlider:toggleUltracode — new keybinding actions so the /effort slider's arrow and Tab keys can be rebound in keybindings.json.
• /rate-limit-options — now listed in /help and the command menu for claude.ai subscribers, so the usage-limit notices that mention it point at a command you can actually find.

Gateway spend tracking

When the Claude apps gateway runs v2.1.284 or later, /usage and the status line now show dollar amounts against the spend limit — e.g. "$271.40 / $500.00 spent this month". The status line's rate_limits.spend_limit also gains used_usd, limit_usd, and period fields.

Gateway admins also get startup warnings when a managed policy's availableModels is empty, or omits the model Claude Code starts on without setting model or enforceAvailableModels. Two auth additions: auth: { google: {} } for telemetry.forward_to destinations (exports telemetry to Google Cloud's OTLP endpoint using the gateway's own GCP credentials), and certificate client authentication via private_key_jwt for IdPs that issue certificate credentials instead of client secrets.

Bug fixes worth noting

• Damaged response streams no longer surface raw errors like "JSON Parse error" or write the literal word "undefined" into an answer — they're retried or reported as interrupted.
• Overloaded/server errors arriving right after a thinking block are now retried instead of ending the turn.
• "Prompt is too long" errors that survived compacting now trigger one more compact pass, keeping less of the recent conversation.
• Agent SDK sessions no longer crash on a user message with a malformed image source; the malformed image is replaced with an explanatory note.
• MCP tool calls in a resumed session no longer fail with "No such tool available" while the server is connecting — the call now waits up to 10 seconds.
• claude mcp add refuses (with guidance) when managed settings restrict MCP servers to plugins, instead of reporting false success.
• The /plugin configure screen now uses a true/false choice for booleans, rejects invalid numbers, and uses ←/→ to change an options field.
• ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_RESOURCE is validated before being interpolated into the Foundry endpoint host.
• On Windows with many plugins, nonexistent plugin bin/ directories are no longer added to PATH.
• sparsePaths marketplaces no longer clone empty on git before 2.39 and wipe a working local copy.

If you're on a Claude apps gateway, upgrading is what unlocks the USD spend display and the 1M-context marking for Claude Desktop.