Claude Code hooks run your own shell commands, HTTP endpoints, MCP tools, prompts, or agents at fixed points in a session. You define them in settings.json, narrow them with matchers, and block actions with exit code 2 or JSON. Exit 0 is not approval, and a hook allow never loosens your deny rules.
OpenAI added composer predictions to Codex in beta. Eligible personal ChatGPT Pro users aged 18 and older can see complete next-message suggestions in the Codex desktop app for supported local and SSH threads, accept them with Tab, edit before sending, and turn the feature off in Settings.
OpenAI shipped Codex permission profiles in beta -- reusable, inheritable policies that replace the coarse sandbox_mode/sandbox_workspace_write combo. A profile binds OS-enforced filesystem read/write/deny rules (down to **/*.env) to per-domain network and Unix-socket rules. Enterprise admins get fail-closed allowlists via requirements.toml. Profiles govern local sandboxed command execution only, not MCP servers, app connectors, browser, or cloud.
A Claude Code mod is a plugin whose JavaScript or TypeScript hooks run inside your session. Ask Claude to write one, or create plugin.json, hooks/hooks.json, and a module that exports register. Load it with --plugin-dir, keep state in $.state, then check it with claude plugin validate and claude plugin test.
Three shifts defined AI tooling in early 2026: MCP settled as the cross-tool standard, coding assistants grew past autocomplete into multi-file workflow partners, and narrowly autonomous agents reached production on supervised tasks. MCP's tipping point came in June 2025, when Visual Studio Code made MCP support generally available.
Claude Platform usage tiers are Start, Build, and Scale, and Sonnet and Haiku rate limits match Opus at every tier, including Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, and Haiku 5.5. Tier placement is automatic, based on usage history rather than spend, but each tier still carries a monthly spend cap.
A US export control directive forced Anthropic to disable Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all customers on June 12, 2026. The controls were lifted June 30 and Fable 5 returned globally July 1 with a new safety classifier. As of September 2026 both models are active, and Fable 5.1 is the current Fable model.
Anthropic published a post-mortem on April 23, 2026 explaining the Claude Code quality regression that ran from early March through mid-April: a March 4 default-effort downgrade from high to medium, a March 26 caching change that wiped reasoning history every turn, and an April 16 verbosity prompt that capped responses at 25 words between tool calls. All three were resolved by April 20, the API was unaffected, and Anthropic reset usage limits for all subscribers.
Cursor stores agent sessions as JSONL transcripts on disk, which means an agent can read its own history and propose rules and skills based on patterns it spots. Eric Zakariasson's prompt formalizes this -- point Cursor at your transcripts and it emits ready-to-save .cursor/rules/*.mdc and .cursor/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md files for review.
In August 2026 OpenAI made GPT-5.6 Sol the single Chat experience for Plus and Pro, with a reasoning slider on web, mobile, and desktop, and moved Free and Go to GPT-5.6 Luna with unlimited text chats and a Think button. Since October 7, GPT-6 Sol and Luna are rolling out in their place.
OpenAI's Pro 500 costs $500 a month for 25 times ChatGPT Plus usage plus Ultrafast, which now covers GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol and uses included limits at 8x the Standard rate. Astra Ultrafast generates tokens up to 8x faster in Codex. Pro 200 reopens; Sottiaux and The New Stack say it falls from 20x to 10x Plus.
OpenAI’s August and September 2026 ChatGPT Sites updates added teammate editing, named external viewers, and public publishing controls. An owner can give a same-workspace member Can edit access; after the owner’s first publish, editors can publish later versions to the same URL. A newer Sites update has since added MCP-tool plugins and shareable profiles.
ChatGPT Voice gives a hands-free way to start, monitor, and steer Codex work in the ChatGPT desktop app, with mobile access through Codex on iOS after pairing an iPhone with a desktop host. Voice draws on your Codex usage budget at $0.05 per minute, or 1.25 credits per minute on credit-billed workspaces, and shares your plan’s usage limits.
The Claude Agent SDK monthly credit never started: Anthropic paused it on June 15, 2026. Since October 7, 2026, Max and Team plans instead include monthly API credits that cover the Agent SDK, `claude -p`, the Claude API, and Managed Agents. Pro and Enterprise get no credit; plan sign-in usage still draws from subscription limits.
Anthropic's +50% Claude Code weekly-limits promotion ended September 13, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT. On September 14 Anthropic rewrote its support article: starting September 14, 2026, weekly limits in Claude Code are 25% higher than they were before the promotion for Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans. Five-hour limits are unchanged.
Claude Code 2.1.142 (May 14, 2026) added eight dispatch flags to `claude agents`, moved fast mode's default from Opus 4.6 to Opus 4.7, and made `MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT` lift the 60-second cap on remote MCP servers. The flags and timeout fix stand; fast mode now defaults to Opus 5.5 (v2.1.280 and later) at $8/$40 per MTok.
Artifacts in Claude Code turn an in-progress session into a live web page that updates as the session works. Launched in June 2026 as a beta for Team and Enterprise with org-only sharing, they are now on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise, and an artifact can be shared to a public link anyone can open.
Claude Code 2.1.277 adds AGENTS.md support through a built-in mod. By default Claude Code reads AGENTS.md when a project has no CLAUDE.md or CLAUDE.local.md, and /config changes the behavior. Since 2.1.281 it also works on Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Microsoft Foundry, LLM gateways, and with telemetry disabled.
Dynamic workflows in Claude Code let Claude write orchestration scripts, fan out work across tens to hundreds of parallel subagents, verify results, and resume long-running jobs.
Claude Code artifacts can call MCP connectors each time someone views them, so a published page shows current data rather than a session snapshot. Available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans with Claude Code v2.1.209 or later. A connector-backed page can now go to a public link, but its live sections stay empty for signed-out or outside viewers.
Claude Code Artifacts, which launched for Team and Enterprise, reached Pro and Max plans in July 2026. On Pro and Max an artifact is private until you share it, and a public link is the way to share it; sharing with specific people or a whole organization is a Team and Enterprise feature.
Claude Code waits in the open session and continues your task automatically when a claude.ai usage limit resets. It is on by default from version 2.1.234 in interactive sessions signed in with a claude.ai subscription. Turn it off in /config under 'Continue automatically at usage limit' or set autoContinueAtUsageLimit to false. It resumes work; it does not raise the limit.
Anthropic's Claude API skill gives Claude Code two evaluation workflows: `/claude-api build-eval` creates an evaluation in a codebase, and `/claude-api hillclimb` proposes one change at a time against it. The hillclimb holds out test cases, reverts changes that do not improve the test set, and reports uncertainty against the baseline.
Claude Design, Claude Slides, and Claude Docs work inside Claude Code, so developers can point Claude at files and RFCs, ask for a design review deck or UI mockup, edit it, and share it from desktop or terminal. As of October 8, 2026 the three templates are out of beta and on every plan.