Anthropic: Claude Code v2.1.143 — 5th patch this week, plugin dependency enforcement and projected context cost in marketplace

Anthropic released Claude Code v2.1.143 on May 15, 2026 — the fifth patch this week following v2.1.139, v2.1.140, v2.1.141 and v2.1.142. The pace is unprecedented for enterprise CLI tooling and signals intensive production of fixes and features driven by real-time user feedback.

What does plugin dependency enforcement actually deliver?

Version 2.1.143 introduces stricter plugin management. When a user tries to disable a plugin that another enabled plugin requires as a dependency, the system “refuses when another enabled plugin depends on the target” and displays a copy-pasteable disable-chain hint — a list of plugins that must be disabled first. Conversely, when a user enables a plugin, its required dependencies are activated automatically.

The approach eliminates a classic class of bugs where a plugin works in development but fails in production because the enabler did not know they had to activate transitive dependencies.

What does “projected context cost” show?

The plugin marketplace now displays per-turn and per-invocation token estimates for each plugin before installation. The user sees:

• How many tokens the plugin consumes per user turn
• How many per individual plugin invocation

The approach addresses the problem where plugins silently eat the context budget without user awareness — the projected cost enables an informed trade-off between functionality and resource consumption.

What does the worktree.bgIsolation setting enable?

The new worktree.bgIsolation: "none" setting allows background sessions to edit working copies directly without EnterWorktree for repositories where worktrees are impractical (e.g. monorepos with heavy build artifacts, repos with submodules that behave poorly in worktrees). The default remains strict isolation; the new mode is an opt-in escape valve.

Background sessions now also preserve model and effort level after idle wake, and maintain config flags (--mcp-config, --settings, --fallback-model) through the respawn cycle.

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass enabled by default

The PowerShell tool now passes the -ExecutionPolicy Bypass flag by default (configurable via environment variable). Enabled by default for Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry users — which are typically enterprise scenarios with strict PowerShell execution policy settings that previously blocked Claude Code scripts.

What fixes does it bring?

Five categories of fixes: corrupt .credentials.json handling, stop hook infinite loops, /goal evaluator timing, permission mode persistence, Windows Terminal compatibility. All classes of issues that surfaced in user reports throughout a week of daily cadence.

The approach positions Claude Code not as a stable product but as a rapidly iterating platform — typical for agentic tooling where user behavior was not predictable in the initial design.