FleetView bg-session dispatcher defaults to Opus 4.7 instead of latest model; ignores ANTHROPIC_MODEL and settings.json `model`

Summary

When launching claude agents (FleetView), the parent agents-view session correctly boots on the latest model (Opus 4.8, picked up from ~/.claude/settings.json's model field). However, background sessions dispatched from FleetView default to Opus 4.7, regardless of:

• ANTHROPIC_MODEL env var set when launching claude agents
• The model field in ~/.claude/settings.json
• The availableModels list in ~/.claude/settings.json

The only way to make dispatched bg sessions boot on 4.8 is to pass --model claude-opus-4-8[1m] explicitly to claude agents. This means FleetView has two independent model defaults — one for the parent UI (reads settings), one for the dispatcher (hardcoded fallback to 4.7) — and they diverge.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.159
• OS: macOS 15.x (Darwin 25.5.0)
• Account type: Enterprise
• Per the model config docs, Opus 4.8 is the default for Max/Team Premium/Enterprise/API accounts.

Reproduction

1. Confirm ~/.claude/settings.json contains:

``json
{
"model": "claude-opus-4-8[1m]",
"availableModels": ["claude-opus-4-8[1m]", "claude-opus-4-7[1m]", ...]
}
``

1. Run plain claude → boots on Opus 4.8 ✅
2. Run ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-opus-4-8[1m] claude agents → FleetView header shows Opus 4.8, but the /model picker inside the parent view does not list 4.8 (only 4.7 and below).
3. Dispatch any bg session from FleetView → the new session boots on Opus 4.7[1m], not 4.8.
4. Inside the bg session, echo $ANTHROPIC_MODEL returns claude-opus-4-7 (not what was set on the parent).
5. Run claude agents --model claude-opus-4-8[1m] → dispatched bg sessions correctly boot on 4.8. ✅

Expected behavior

claude agents without --model should fall back to the same "latest available model" default that plain claude uses (or at minimum read settings.json's model field or ANTHROPIC_MODEL). The dispatcher's default shouldn't be hardcoded to a previous-generation model.

Actual behavior

Dispatcher default is pinned to Opus 4.7 regardless of config. The /model picker inside FleetView also seems to be missing 4.8 as an option, so users can't even discover it without knowing to pass --model on the CLI.

Workaround

alias claud='claude agents --model claude-opus-4-8[1m]'

Why this matters

• Silent downgrade is surprising — config says 4.8, header says 4.8, but bg jobs run on 4.7 with no warning.
• For users who do most of their work via FleetView bg dispatch, this means they're unknowingly running every session on an older model.
• The /model picker inside FleetView not listing 4.8 compounds the confusion — there's no UI affordance to discover the available models match what's in settings.json.

~ Automated via Claude