Claude's cloud sessions stopped waiting for plugin MCP servers. One flag brings it back.

By Lior AharonovFounder, 7IT Solutions · 19 October 2026

What happened

Claude Code 2.1.304 shipped on 19 October 2026 and is now the latest, next and stable release on npm. In cloud sessions, a new conversation's first turn no longer waits for the local (stdio) MCP servers of plugins synced from claude.ai, unless a server sets alwaysLoad: true. The same release lets a mod's tool.check answer with decider: "person".

Why it matters

Picture the first prompt of a cloud session asking for your tool. Your stdio server is still starting, so on turn one the tool may simply not be there yet. Faster start for the user, a quiet miss for you.

What to do

If your plugin's stdio server must answer on the very first turn, set alwaysLoad: true on it and test a fresh cloud session. Otherwise make sure your skill still works when the tool arrives a turn later.

Startup time is now a feature someone else trims for you. Decide whether your server is worth the wait, before the client decides it isn't.

Lior Aharonov · my take

Sources

Claude Code changelog at v2.1.304 (anthropics/claude-code) raw.githubusercontent.com
npm registry: @anthropic-ai/claude-code 2.1.304 registry.npmjs.org

claude-codepluginsstdiocloud

Researched with AI tools; every fact is checked against the linked sources.