Anthropic carelessly killed a Claude Code feature users built on, no warning

Repository navigation #

area:statusline

area:tui

bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

platform:linuxIssue specifically occurs on LinuxIssue specifically occurs on Linux

platform:macosIssue specifically occurs on macOSIssue specifically occurs on macOS

regression

Description #

Regression: 2.1.323 silently removed subagentStatusLine, with no reason, no replacement and no migration path #

What happened

The 2.1.323 changelog says:

Removed the subagentStatusLine setting: subagent rows always use the default look, and settings files that still hold the key load as before

The settings schema now describes the key as "Deprecated: no longer has any effect. Subagent rows always use the default look." Nothing warns at startup. A configured command simply stops running, and users find out when their agent panel goes blank.

2.1.322 still runs the command. 2.1.323 never calls it.

Why this hurts

subagentStatusLine was the only place in Claude Code where a user could see, per running subagent, at a glance:

• its live context use against its own window
• what it has spent so far (tokens and dollars)
• its model and its reasoning effort
• its status, its age and its prompt-cache state

Without it, a session that runs several background agents is flying blind. Nothing in the default row shows which agent is burning context, which one is about to hit its window, which one went to the expensive model, or which one is silently re-paying for an expired cache.

This is the row as it rendered on 2.1.322, boxed in red:

The same row as text:

○ ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 8% 82.6K/1.0M Σ$2.06/2.9M/28.5K/40 │flights:foreman│opus·▰▰ medium│running 5m:40s│1 error│💾5m✓4m:54s 98%

After 2.1.323 the same row reads only flights:foreman Running grep.

This contradicts your own recent direction

The changelog kept investing in this setting right up to the removal:

• "Added reasoning effort to the subagentStatusLine payload, so custom agent rows can render model and effort"
• "Added agentType to thesubagentStatusLine payload, so scripts can tell custom subagent types apart"
• "Fixed ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} not being substituted in a plugin-providedsubagentStatusLine command"

People built on those additions. The docs still present the setting as live today: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/statusline (section on subagentStatusLine) and https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings.

Mods do not replace it

The ui.render sites in 2.1.323 are AskUserQuestion, UserMessage, AssistantMessage, ToolUse, ToolResult, ToolGroup, ToolProgress, CommandOutput, Spinner, TurnDuration, InfoNotice, SessionMode, PromptHint, AbovePrompt, Pane and Placed. None of them is an agent-panel row, so no mod can draw what this setting drew. #105919 asked for exactly that render site on 2026-10-29 and has had no answer.

Related open requests that all assume this setting exists: #102183, #102890, #96895, #97634 (the last one notes that no other place in the UI shows a subagent's model).

What we ask

1. Restore subagentStatusLine in the next release, with the same payload as 2.1.322 (includingeffort ,agentType ,contextWindowSize andtokenCount ).
2. If the default agent panel is being redesigned, ship the replacement before removing the old hook : aui.render site for each agent-panel row ([FEATURE] Mods: render sites for statusLine and subagentStatusLine rows #105919 ), whose props carry the same payload.
3. Do not remove a documented, configurable surface without a deprecation release that warns at startup and a changelog line that says why.

Environment

• Claude Code 2.1.323 (regression); 2.1.322 works
• Linux and macOS, terminal UI
• The subagentStatusLine command is set through--settings and in user settings; both are ignored on 2.1.323

Activity #

1. addedbugSomething isn't working Something isn't workingplatform:linuxIssue specifically occurs on Linux Issue specifically occurs on Linuxplatform:macosIssue specifically occurs on macOS Issue specifically occurs on macOSon Nov 13, 2026
2. You've removed a functionality that I've built my real-time observability on it, with NO reason/replacement/explanation!! This is unacceptable Can you please have a look into this!?

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area:statusline

area:tui

bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

platform:linuxIssue specifically occurs on LinuxIssue specifically occurs on Linux

platform:macosIssue specifically occurs on macOSIssue specifically occurs on macOS

regression