Subagent status lines used to re-read the entire conversation every 30 seconds. Now Haiku 5.5 writes each update from short notes instead, cutting the token cost of those updates by about 99%.
The subagent itself keeps its own model unchanged. Sessions with background subagents now use about 5% less of the usage limit, translating to roughly 6% more prompts. Live for most Pro, Max, and Ultra users and all Team and Enterprise accounts on v2.1.316 and above.
The 99% cost reduction for subagent status updates applies only to the CLI. The desktop app doesn't write a status line in the same way, so there was nothing to change there.
A user reported Claude refusing to generate Pong, a game made of two rectangles and a square, after spending $2,000 in API credits. A team member noted the refusal prompt was updated in v2.1.317 and asked which version the user was running.
A new /storage command in the desktop app shows how much disk space Claude is using and lets you clear out inactive tasks and unused worktrees.
"Runtime" in the desktop app refers to two things: the VM that Claude runs tasks inside, plus the Claude Code versions the app has already downloaded.
Ultra plan users still hitting the five-hour cap probably haven't completed account verification yet. The cap is only removed for verified accounts.
