cc-changelog

cc-changelog puts the unofficial Claude Code changelog in the terminal. /whatsnew opens a pane listing the releases written up on changelogs.core-directive.com, a third-party site that reads each build and describes what changed. The same module gives the model nine tools for looking things up on that site and shows a toast when a release lands mid-session. The README states that an AI agent wrote the code and the text from the author’s direction.

What it does

• The pane has up to four tabs. Releases lists the 25 items in the feed, newest first, with an asterisk on those that appeared since you last opened it and a line saying how many releases behind the running build is. Picking a release shows its summary and first eight entries. Search is a field plus three filters (tier, area, release). Entry draws one entry in full, code blocks included.
• Ask me about it, under an entry, offers two prompts (explain it, show how to use it) and writes your pick into the prompt box. You send it; the pane never starts a turn.
• Nine tools for the model. releases, entries, entry, changelog and search cover the changelog. reference says what a flag, environment variable, settings key, slash command, tool, hook event or model id is. docs searches Anthropic’s documentation as the site captured it, blog reads the site owner’s posts and prompts returns the stock tool descriptions a given build sent to the model. A search the model runs also lands in the pane’s Search tab.
• A poll every 30 minutes raises a toast and a status line when a release the session has not announced appears.

Install

Needs Claude Code with function hooks enabled, an interactive terminal and network access to changelogs.core-directive.com. The author verified it on Claude Code 2.1.267 and 2.1.269 on Linux and declares no minimum version.

git clone https://github.com/AnExiledDev/cc-changelog-plugin.git
claude --plugin-dir ./cc-changelog-plugin

--plugin-dir loads the plugin for that session only and reloads it when a file in the folder changes. To keep it, the README says to copy the folder into ~/.claude/skills/cc-changelog and start claude with the flag set. Then type /whatsnew; esc returns to the prompt.

How it works

session.start registers the command and the tools, reads the feed once and starts the timer. command.run answers /whatsnew by opening the pane. ui.render draws it for the terminal surface from the cache alone: a missing document is fetched beside the frame and the pane redraws when it arrives. Each tool.call hook fetches one JSON route of the site and returns the answer as a string, cut at 20,000 characters per document. The “releases behind” line runs claude --version once per session with a five-second timeout and is absent if that fails.

Every request goes to https://changelogs.core-directive.com (or to CC_CHANGELOG_BASE_URL) with a user agent that names the plugin. Search terms, yours and the model’s, travel as query strings. Responses are cached in $.store under their URL for as long as the server’s Cache-Control allows, 15 minutes if it says nothing, and revalidated with If-None-Match after that. A failed fetch serves the stale copy. The cache keeps the 40 most recent documents in a store the README says every session on the machine shares. The store also holds view (the pane’s tab, item and last search) and seen (the releases you have opened the pane on).

Tokens: the pane and the poll cost none, because nothing they draw reaches the model. The nine tool descriptions sit in the model’s tool list from the first turn, as with any MCP server; an answer costs tokens only when the model calls one.

Limitations

• Terminal only. The author has not run the desktop or mobile surfaces.
• The changelog is the site’s reading of each release, not Anthropic’s. reference measures in_current_build against the newest build the site has mined, which trails the newest release by several versions.
• The feed carries 25 releases; older ones are reachable through Search only.
• Built on a runtime the author calls undocumented and liable to change between releases.