Anthropic: Claude Code v2.1.162 brings dedicated search tools and a quieter startup

Claude Code CLI v2.1.162 was released on 3 June 2026 (according to the GitHub published_at marker) as a new release of Anthropic’s command-line tool for model-assisted development. The release brings more precise control over the built-in search tools, better insight into the state of parallel agents, and a series of fixes that eliminate silent errors at startup.

What does the —tools flag change?

The --tools flag (the parameter by which the user selects which tools a session may use) gains clearly defined behavior for search in version v2.1.162. Explicitly listing the Grep and Glob tools now enables dedicated search tools on native builds that have built-in search. Before this change, these names were silently ignored, so the user did not get the expected dedicated search but instead relied on generic searching.

The change is important for workflows where search precision is crucial. A developer searching a large repository for a specific symbol or pattern can now count on Grep and Glob actually launching the optimized, dedicated tools.

How does waitingFor change agent monitoring?

The claude agents --json command gains a new waitingFor field. It shows what a blocked session is waiting on, for example a permission prompt (a request for approval of an action). When running multiple agents simultaneously, this field quickly reveals which session is stuck and why, without manually opening each session.

In addition, the output of the claude agents command no longer truncates status text and session names, but uses the full width of the terminal. A problem was also fixed where attaching to a session would occasionally “bounce” the user back to the session list after the background service was restarted.

Which startup errors were fixed?

The most important fix concerns the silent startup hang that occurred when the configuration directory was read-only or non-writable. Instead of silently hanging, Claude Code now starts with an in-memory configuration and clearly displays startup errors.

The startup itself is also clearer. Notifications are grouped by severity, and session information and announcements share a single line per startup, so the launch is “quieter” than before. Remote Control is now shown as a persistent footer pill (a permanent element at the bottom) with a link to the session, instead of as a one-time message at startup.

What is new around permissions and editor names?

WebFetch rules now take precedence over preapproved (pre-approved) hosts. Explicit WebFetch(domain:...) deny/ask/allow rules apply even to built-in, pre-approved domains, giving the user full control over which domains the tool may access.

On Windows, permission rules that did not match when written with backslashes (backslash paths such as ~\ or \\server\share) or in a different letter case have been fixed. Read deny rules now correctly hide files from the results of the Glob and Grep tools. Finally, the Windsurf editor was renamed to “Devin Desktop” in the /ide menu, following the editor’s own rebrand.