Claude-Code v2.1.51: Security fixes, performance improvements, and new remote control feature

What's new in Claude-Code v2.1.51
Anthropics has released Claude-Code v2.1.51 with security fixes, performance improvements, and new features for developers using AI coding agents.
Key changes and fixes
- New remote control feature: Added
claude remote-controlsubcommand for external builds, enabling local environment serving for all users. - Plugin marketplace improvements: Updated default git timeout from 30s to 120s and added
CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_GIT_TIMEOUT_MSenvironment variable for configuration. Added support for custom npm registries and specific version pinning when installing plugins from npm sources. - BashTool performance: Now skips login shell (
-lflag) by default when a shell snapshot is available, improving command execution performance. Previously required settingCLAUDE_BASH_NO_LOGIN=true. - Security fixes: Fixed issue where
statusLineandfileSuggestionhook commands could execute without workspace trust acceptance in interactive mode. Fixed HTTP hooks interpolating arbitrary environment variables from header values - env var interpolation now requires explicitallowedEnvVarslist in hook configuration. - Context management: Tool results larger than 50K characters are now persisted to disk (previously 100K), reducing context window usage and improving conversation longevity.
- API stability: Fixed bug where duplicate
control_responsemessages (e.g., from WebSocket reconnects) could cause API 400 errors by pushing duplicate assistant messages into conversation. - SDK improvements: Added
CLAUDE_CODE_ACCOUNT_UUID,CLAUDE_CODE_USER_EMAIL, andCLAUDE_CODE_ORGANIZATION_UUIDenvironment variables for SDK callers to provide account info synchronously, eliminating race condition where early telemetry events lacked account metadata. - Plugin compatibility: Fixed slash command autocomplete crashing when a plugin's SKILL.md description is a YAML array or other non-string type.
- Network security: HTTP hooks now routed through sandbox network proxy when sandboxing is enabled, enforcing domain allowlist. HTTP hooks not supported for SessionStart/Setup events.
- UI improvements: The
/modelpicker now shows human-readable labels (e.g., "Sonnet 4.5") instead of raw model IDs for pinned model versions, with upgrade hint when newer version available.
📖 Read the full source: GitHub Claude-Code
👀 See Also

OpenClaw 2026.4.2 and 2026.3.31 break local LLM connections
OpenClaw versions 2026.4.2 and 2026.3.31 are causing connection timeouts to locally hosted Ollama instances. The issue appears when connecting to Ubuntu boxes running locally, with error logs showing LLM request timeouts and failover decisions.

Developer pleads guilty to $8M AI music streaming fraud scheme
Michael Smith, 54, admitted to using thousands of bot accounts and AI-generated songs to siphon $8 million in royalties from streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music between 2017 and 2024.
Claude Code A/B Test Silently Shrinks 'High' Effort to Former 'Low' Level
Anthropic is silently A/B testing reduced effort levels in Claude Code 2.1.236+, making 'high' effort behave like the old 'low'. Server-side, not in the app.

Kimi K2.6 vs Claude Opus 4.7: Hands-On Test with a Minetest Bounty Board Mod
A developer tested Kimi K2.6 and Claude Opus 4.7 on building a Minetest/Luanti bounty board mod with TypeScript backend and Google Sheets logging. Opus got it working cleanly; Kimi failed on the integration part.