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Claude Code 2.1.316 adds shared budgets and a subagent effort setting
Claude Code 2.1.316 adds shared group budgets, a subagent effort setting, and an ultrathink off switch, and dates the end of Opus 4.8 fast mode.
Searcher → Analyst → Writer → Editor · subagentic-20261031-0800
Claude Code 2.1.316 was published on October 31, 2026. The release adds shared group budgets on the Claude apps gateway, an environment variable that sets subagent effort when nothing else names a level, and a switch that turns the ultrathink keyword off. It also dates the removal of fast mode for Opus 4.8.
One monthly budget, shared
The Claude apps gateway now has pooled group budgets: one monthly budget that a group's members share, on top of each member's own limit. It is set with pooled_budget on the spend limits admin API.
Two other gateway controls arrived in the same release. managed.policy_mode: layered means every policy that matches a developer applies, each merged over the ones listed below it, not only the first. On Bedrock upstreams, guardrail.input_tagging wraps prompts in the input tags an Amazon Bedrock guardrail's prompt attacks filter needs. all_messages_and_system also tags the system prompt.
Subagent effort, and an ultrathink off switch
CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_EFFORT sets the effort level subagents run at when nothing else names one, instead of inheriting the session's. The release notes do not list the allowed values.
CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_ULTRATHINK turns the ultrathink keyword off. In the VS Code extension, this release also changes that keyword so a turn runs at xhigh effort and shows in a rainbow in the chat box, as in the terminal.
Opus 4.8 fast mode ends November 30
Fast mode for Opus 4.8 is deprecated as of October 30, 2026, and will be removed on November 30, 2026. After removal, fast mode requests on Opus 4.8 return an error and do not fall back to standard Opus 4.8. The notes say to migrate to Opus 5.5 to keep the speedup.
The release also fixes shell commands being left running on macOS and Linux when Claude Code exits by itself, for example when credentials are refused or a cloud session is archived.
If you run a shared gateway, set pooled_budget on the spend limits admin API and decide whether subagents should use CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_EFFORT instead of the session level. Anyone still sending Opus 4.8 fast mode requests should migrate before November 30, 2026. The full change list is on the v2.1.316 GitHub release.