Claude Code v2.1.218: Key Bug Fixes and Accessibility Enhancements

What's changed

• Changed /code-review to run as a background subagent, so review work no longer fills your conversation and keeps stacked slash commands as its review target
• Added screen-reader announcements of deleted text for word and line deletions (Option+Delete, Ctrl+W, Cmd+Backspace, Ctrl+U, Ctrl+K) in --ax-screen-reader mode
• Fixed Windows paths with \u-prefixed segments (like C:\Users\unicorn) being corrupted into CJK characters in tool inputs, which made those files inaccessible
• Fixed the left arrow key discarding the conversation with no undo: presses right after editing now ask to confirm, and Esc in the agent view returns to the conversation it backgrounded
• Added HTTP status and error text to claude mcp list and /mcp when a server fails to connect, and a warning for MCP config values with hidden leading or trailing whitespace
• Fixed multi-line paste collapsing into one line with j in place of newlines in terminals that encode pasted newlines as Ctrl+J
• Fixed /context reporting stale pre-compact token usage after compacting from the message picker
• Fixed /ultrareview failing on descriptive arguments like "review my auth changes" — they now run a review of your current branch with the text applied as a note to the findings
• Fixed /code-review ultra silently running a local review in non-interactive sessions — it now launches the cloud review
• Fixed gateway spend metering to price Bedrock application-inference-profile ARNs and other config-mapped upstream model IDs at the configured model's rates
• Fixed mojibake when a long IDE selection was truncated mid-emoji, and a case where a tool executor error could be silently dropped
• Fixed an engine teardown race that could start and abandon a phantom turn, and made input pushed after close consistently rejected
• Fixed spurious "[Request interrupted by user]" messages after interrupted tool calls, and an unpaired tool_use block left in the transcript when a tool aborted mid-response
• Fixed VoiceOver reading "new line" instead of echoing the typed space at the end of the input in --ax-screen-reader mode
• Fixed plugin and settings panels not moving the terminal cursor to the focused row, so screen readers and magnifiers can follow arrow-key navigation
• Fixed crashes (maximum call stack exceeded) when a deeply nested watched directory tree was deleted or moved, and when rendering deeply nested UI trees
• Fixed pull request events occasionally being lost when a session exited immediately after creating or linking a PR
• Fixed the Bedrock setup wizard failing profile verification for assume-role profiles in partitioned AWS regions and on proxy-only networks
• Fixed rare negative or incorrect turn duration measurements after a system clock adjustment by timing turns with a monotonic clock
• Fixed the "N MCP servers need authentication" startup notice over-counting claude.ai connectors that aren't connected in claude.ai
• Fixed prompt history entries being dropped or duplicated when history writes raced or failed
• Fixed a retry loop that re-sent identical doomed requests after a context-overflow error with a large thinking budget; Ctrl+B backgrounding now applies the same background-shell caps as other paths
• Fixed agent frontmatter hooks running from untrusted folders: hooks now require the agent file's own folder to have accepted workspace trust
• Fixed fork-session lineage being lost after compaction in headless and SDK sessions
• Fixed a resumed session failing every turn, or crashing on resume, when its history held a malformed delta attachment
• Improved /ultrareview error feedback so Claude can correct an invalid argument instead of retrying it unchanged
• Improved auto mode: the dangerous-rm, background-&, and suspicious-Windows-path checks no longer open permission dialogs; the auto-mode classifier adjudicates them instead
• Improved sandbox command restrictions for IDE interactions
• Improved trust dialogs to name the repository root the grant covers
• Changed /deep-research to start only when invoked manually; Claude no longer launches it on its own
• Changed plan mode with auto to no longer prompt for Bash commands the static analyzer can't prove read-only; the auto-mode classifier judges them instead
• Added an announcement when fast mode changes as a result of switching models via /config model=<x> or Remote Control
• Changed server-managed settings so benign feature and cost toggles no longer trigger the settings-approval prompt
• Changed agent markdown files to reject agent names containing :, which is reserved for plugin namespacing
• Changed skills with context: fork to run in the background by default; opt out per skill with background: false
• Added yes/no/on/off/1/0 (case-insensitive) as accepted values for skill and plugin frontmatter booleans, alongside true/false
• Fixed remote sessions continuing to send heartbeats after their worker was replaced, which left long-lived desktop and IDE processes retrying a rejected request every few seconds forever