The Claude Desktop release notes went to v2.9939.2 yesterday, bundling Claude Code 2.1.281. After 2.7032.0 two days ago that’s the second jump this week, and this one changes two defaults worth knowing about.
A deleted session is now actually gone
Deleting a session in the app now also removes that session’s Claude Code transcript and related files from your computer. claude --resume can no longer reopen it.
That’s the clean version, and it costs you a safety net. Until yesterday a deleted session was gone from the client but still on disk. If you want to keep one, export it first.
Auto mode moves forward in the Code tab
autoModeEnabled means something different now. New Code tab sessions start in Auto mode where the selected model supports it, unless the key is explicitly false. If the key isn’t set at all, the Code tab still offers Auto mode; previously it only did so when the key was true.
Cowork and Chat are unchanged: only true offers Auto mode there, and those sessions still ask before each action. To keep it off entirely, set the key to false, or disableAutoMode to "disable" in Claude Code’s managed-settings.json.
Two more changes in the same corner: Code and Cowork sessions now start Claude Code with fast mode turned off, and /fast reports that it isn’t available. And the Cowork message box gets an extended-thinking switch next to the effort control.
The built-in browser asks more often
Under the default builtinBrowserDefaultDomainPolicy: "allow", Claude now asks before each of its actions on a site that Anthropic’s site-safety list flags for confirmation. Only a site listed in builtinBrowserAllowedDomains skips that confirmation — and that key applies under "block". Sites the safety list blocks stay blocked either way.
Also: managed MCP servers no longer follow HTTP redirects. A server whose URL redirects now reports a configuration error, so put the final address in the configuration.
What else got fixed
On macOS, SSH connections to machines on your own network failed with “no route to host” when a Homebrew ssh sat ahead of Apple’s on PATH. On Windows, the app burned a full CPU core after archived sessions’ worktrees were cleaned up; Cowork sessions wouldn’t start for accounts with many connected folders, nor on MSIX installs, and a stopped background service left “VM service not running” until you rebooted.
From the small-annoyance pile: a message typed into a new chat was lost if you were asked to sign in again before sending. Plugins containing a .zip file never installed. 1Password autofilled the wrong browser tab. Arabic and Hebrew messages drew quote bars and bullets on the wrong side. And scheduled tasks with an empty description showed no prompt, couldn’t be edited and couldn’t be run.
The default is the announcement
In a list of forty lines, two sentences change daily work, and both are defaults. Deleting a session now means deleting files. A new Code session begins in Auto mode unless somebody objects.
It lines up with what Claude Code shipped this week: yesterday the prompt before rm -rf, today the permission rules that never applied. Anthropic is making auto mode the normal case and tightening the rails at the same time. The two belong together — you only see it when you read both changelogs side by side.