Just hours after the Sonnet 5 launch, Anthropic shipped Claude Code 2.1.197. The headline: Sonnet 5 is now the default model. Fire up Claude Code and you’re automatically working with the new model — including its native 1-million-token context window.
What’s New?
Sonnet 5 as default: You get Sonnet 5 at the introductory $2/$10 per million tokens rate (through August 31). After that, the standard $3/$15 applies. The model comes with a native 1M-token context window — no tricks, no compression.
Org default models: Admins can now set a default model for their organization in the org console. It shows up as ‘Org default’ or ‘Role default’ under /model. Handy for teams that want consistency.
Readable session names: Sessions now get human-readable default names instead of cryptic IDs. Sounds minor, but it makes a real difference when you’re running multiple sessions in parallel.
Clickable file attachments: You can now Cmd-click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (Windows/Linux) on file attachments in chat to reveal them in Finder or Explorer. Saves you the manual navigation.
Security fix: claude mcp list/get no longer spawns .mcp.json servers from committed .claude/settings.json files. A small but important detail for supply chain security.
My Take
Not a revolutionary update, but a solid one. Making Sonnet 5 the default is the logical move — the model delivers near-Opus-4.8 quality at Sonnet pricing. Org defaults are a feature teams have been waiting for. And readable session names are one of those small improvements where you wonder why it wasn’t like this from the start.
Sources: Claude Code Changelog · Claude Code Docs: Changelog