Anthropic released Claude Code 2.1.299 on Oct 14. A new default compacts a 200K+ token terminal conversation after about 54 idle minutes, before its one-hour prompt cache expires, so the next message doesn't reprocess everything; tune it with CLAUDE_CODE_IDLE_COMPACT_MIN_TOKENS or turn it off with "idleCompaction": false. The release also fixes sandboxed shell commands being able to write into a --plugin-dir folder whose code Claude Code reloads outside the sandbox, and adds --disallow-tools to claude plugin eval.

Key Takeaways

  • ✓Idle compaction: triggers at 200K+ tokens after ~54 idle minutes, before the one-hour prompt cache expires
  • ✓Configurable: CLAUDE_CODE_IDLE_COMPACT_MIN_TOKENS changes the 200K floor; "idleCompaction": false in settings.json disables it
  • ✓Security fix: sandboxed commands could write into a --plugin-dir folder whose code is reloaded and run outside the sandbox
  • ✓Custom ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL streams now wait 300 s instead of 180 s with no data; gateway-specific model names no longer fail compaction near 200K tokens
  • ✓claude plugin eval gains --disallow-tools and a disallowed_tools case field to keep built-ins such as Agent out of eval runs
Claude Code 2.1.299 adds idle compaction for 200K+ token sessions before cache expiry and fixes sandboxed writes into --plugin-dir
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Claude Code CHANGELOG (GitHub)
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In-Depth Technical Analysis

Claude Code 2.1.299 (Oct 14, 2026) makes idle compaction a default: a terminal conversation above 200K tokens that sits idle for about 54 minutes is compacted before its one-hour prompt cache expires, so the next message doesn't reprocess the whole context. CLAUDE_CODE_IDLE_COMPACT_MIN_TOKENS changes the 200K floor and "idleCompaction": false in settings.json turns it off. The release fixes a sandbox boundary issue where sandboxed shell commands could write into a --plugin-dir folder whose code Claude Code reloads and runs outside the sandbox. It also adds CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_FILE_MENTIONS (pass @-mention paths instead of file contents), --disallow-tools for claude plugin eval, and raises the no-data stream timeout for custom ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL endpoints from 180 to 300 seconds. Anthropic did not publish token or cost savings for idle compaction, so there is no benchmark to report.

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