The "Yes/No" You Gave Wasn't Reaching the Cloud — Claude Code v2.1.291 Re-sealed the Approval "Pathway" It Had Just Widened, a Day Later
Claude Code v2.1.291 (October 6) fixes, same-day, a regression brought in by the major v2.1.290 release the day before. It plugs a bug that dropped replies to permission prompts in cloud sessions, along with a bug that lost the final message on exit. The day after approvals were reinforced, the "pat
A Small Patch, One Day After a Major Release
On October 6, Anthropic released Claude Code v2.1.291. Coming right after v2.1.290 had substantially expanded the approval machinery the day before, it's a small patch that fixes just two bugs.
v2.1.290 was a major update that added ceiling, which indicates the sign-off level an organization requires, and serverToolUses, which records tools that ran on the server side. Released the next day, v2.1.291 plugs the gaps that update introduced.
What It Fixed: The "Reply" and the "Last Word"
There were two fixes. Both address regressions that had crept in over previous versions.
- Approval replies getting dropped: A regression introduced in v2.1.290. In cloud sessions, responses to permission prompts could be dropped.
- The final message disappearing on exit: A regression introduced in v2.1.288. When a session ended, the last message could be lost.
Why "Approval Replies Not Arriving" Matters
A permission prompt is the checkpoint an agent passes before moving on to a risky operation. The user decides whether to let it through by answering "yes" or "no."
If that reply doesn't arrive, the session can't act on the decision that was made. At a local terminal you'd notice, but when you're running in the cloud you're often not watching the screen.
Claude Code has been expanding unattended operation and cloud execution. The narrower the approval pathway in a given spot, the more easily a dropped reply can lead to quiet stalls or a gap in decision-making.
A Day After Reinforcing Approvals, That Pathway Clogged
It's an ironic sequence. v2.1.290 reinforced the "recording and boundaries" of approvals — using ceiling to indicate the sign-off level, agentId to distinguish a sub-agent's decisions, and pushing even server-side tool executions onto the ledger.
Yet that same update was dropping the approval "reply" itself in the cloud. No matter how finely the machinery is built, the checkpoint can't work if the path the reply travels is missing.
The faster convenience is expanded, the more the reliability of the foundation gets questioned afterward — this patch can be read as one glimpse of that. It's not meant to alarm, but it's a point worth keeping in mind for anyone entrusting work to unattended operation.
What to Check Now
If you're on v2.1.290, there's real value in hurrying to update to v2.1.291. Especially in workflows that insert approvals during cloud sessions, a dropped reply can translate directly into real harm.
The loss of the final message on exit is a bug that had been lurking since v2.1.288. If you've been repeatedly exiting on an older version, it's worth reviewing your records for any gaps, just to be safe.
References: Claude Code Official Changelog / Releasebot (Anthropic / Claude Code) / Havoptic: Claude Code Release Summaries
