AI Coding Tools Roundup: Claude Code 2.1.301, Codex 0.163, Copilot CLI 1.0.98 and OpenCode 1.19.2
Another busy day for coding agents. Claude Code shipped v2.1.300 and v2.1.301, Codex 0.163.0 landed as stable with live steering, GitHub Copilot CLI moved from 1.0.95 to 1.0.98, and OpenCode 1.19.1 and 1.19.2 tightened the road to OpenCode 2. Everything below comes from the official release pages.
Claude Code: v2.1.300 and v2.1.301
Two releases landed since our last roundup, per the Claude Code GitHub releases and the official changelog.
- Retry watchdog cap (2.1.301): unattended retry mode now ends a request when a usage limit resets too far away, controlled with CLAUDE_CODE_RETRY_WATCHDOG_MAX_USAGE_LIMIT_WAIT_MS, instead of waiting.
- Safer worktrees (2.1.301): quitting no longer removes a WorktreeCreate hook's worktree without asking when it may hold unpushed commits.
- Honest errors (2.1.301): Grep and Glob now return an error when a search fails instead of reporting no matches, and the Read tool no longer reads binary files such as .parquet or .heic as text.
- Observability (2.1.300 and 2.1.301): OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic-convention attributes on trace spans, cache_creation_5m_tokens and cache_creation_1h_tokens on api_request events, and classifier_verdict and permission_mode on tool_decision events.
- Behavior changes (2.1.300): large requests to api.anthropic.com are gzip-compressed by default (disable with CLAUDE_CODE_GZIP_REQUEST_BODIES=0), background commands are force-killed 1.5 seconds after exit is requested, and --sandbox and --no-sandbox were removed from claude remote-control.
- Smoother switching (2.1.301): moving to a model with a smaller context window now summarizes an over-long conversation with the previous model first.
OpenAI Codex 0.163.0: Steer While It Thinks
The stable 0.163.0 release (October 15) is on the Codex releases page. The headline is real-time steering: send a follow-up while Codex is responding and it adjusts course, and interrupting a turn also stops active Code Mode cells.
- /config now searches settings across categories and applies supported changes immediately; /keymap adds a configurable leader key (default Ctrl+X) and voice mute moved to F9.
- /daemon can restart a managed background server and warns about work that could be interrupted; independent read-only tools can now run in parallel.
- Security and reliability: the network proxy checks permission before DNS lookups and rejects duplicate Host headers, and resuming a saved thread restores its permissions and network approvals.
- Housekeeping: the patched zsh shell backend was removed in favor of the standard shell executor, and packaged binaries are smaller on Linux and macOS.
GitHub Copilot CLI: 1.0.95 to 1.0.98
The GitHub changelog and the Havoptic Copilot CLI tracker show four releases this week (the tracker is third-party, so check GitHub for the authoritative notes).
- 1.0.98 (Oct 14): fixes keystrokes lost at startup, adds one-key expansion of AI answers, and adds Claude Haiku 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon as models.
- 1.0.97 (Oct 13): more reliable custom-agent discovery in complex repo layouts, agent-scoped declarative hooks, and /usage now shows billed AI Credits.
- 1.0.96 (Oct 12): the sandbox detects potential secrets and lets you mask them before saving.
- 1.0.95 (Oct 9): improved macOS authentication and more control over the context your sessions use.
OpenCode: 1.19.1 and 1.19.2
Per the OpenCode releases page, v1.19.1 (Oct 15) discontinues session sharing: existing share links and importing from share URLs no longer work. v1.19.2 (Oct 16) keeps 1.x installs on the 1.x line so update checks stop offering 2.x builds; moving to OpenCode 2 is now an explicit choice via /update or opencode upgrade --major. It also fixes yarn-managed upgrades, skips 1.x updates for Homebrew Core installs, and makes the install script refuse 2.x versions.
What to Do Today
- Running Claude Code unattended? Update to 2.1.301 and set a maximum usage-limit wait so jobs fail fast instead of idling.
- Codex users: try steering mid-response in 0.163.0 and review the new /keymap leader key if you use Ctrl+X bindings.
- OpenCode users: export anything you rely on from shared sessions, since sharing is gone, and upgrade to 2.x only when you choose to.
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