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What's new in Beacon
Recent updates to Beacon from Josh: features, schema changes, and Claude tool improvements. The toolkit page reflects all of these.
March 26, 2026: Shaping skills now based on Ryan Singer's official ShapeUp patterns
Ryan Singer (creator of the ShapeUp methodology) released his own official shaping skills. Josh incorporated them into Beacon this week while keeping the Beacon-specific additions. The March 23 commands below are the result. One addition not in that entry: /shaping now includes upstream/downstream skill references — pointers to adjacent skills that feed in or out of the shaping step.
March 23, 2026: Planning tools overhaul
/breadboarding is now /breadboard. The command is significantly enhanced with better chunking, navigation wiring rules, support for multi-system diagrams, and labeled flows.
Two new commands in the planning pipeline: /framing-doc (turn raw source material into an evidence-based problem frame before shaping) and /kickoff-doc (for collaborative work — creates a territory-based builder reference from a kickoff transcript).
New /breadboard-reflection command: two-phase audit that verifies a breadboard against what was actually built. Also runs automatically in /pr-prep Wave 5.
/shaping updated with a macro fit-check for early-stage work and 🟡 change markers. When you run /pr-prep, it now copies your shaping and breadboarding documents into the PR so reviewers can read them.
New /branch-prune command: cleans up local branches that were deleted on the server after a PR merged.
All Claude tools in Beacon were rewritten based on updated Anthropic best practices. Things should trigger more reliably.
March 23, 2026: AI writing tools
Beacon's autocomplete and AI writing tools are updated. You can now preview copy before accepting it and refine further with follow-up prompts. Try it.
March 18, 2026: Claude tool updates
Expanded dialpad-design agents now cover layout, voice & tone, interaction, animation, motion, typography, and color. /pr-prep includes a design review check as part of the static analysis wave.
/shaping has a new Discovery mode. If your goal is vague, Claude will explore with you before pushing to pick a shape. You don't need it figured out before you start.
New /debug-trace command: adds debug logs to the code you point at, outputs runtime state to the console. Use it when you're going in circles on a bug instead of letting Claude keep reading files.
New skills: feature-flags (create flags consistently) and jira-management (say "update the Jira" or "create a ticket"; Claude handles it without a slash command).
March 18, 2026: Beacon features
BeaconComposer recipe is live with dedicated content slots and rich text rendering in conversation rows. Storybook for unmigrated Beacon components coming soon.
New Contact Center schema: contact centers, memberships, settings, managed phone numbers, operator skills, operating hour profiles, dispositions, and groups. The data layer is built. UI is next. Ask Josh if you want to start it.
Beacon now runs as an Electron desktop app. To set it up:
pnpm install
pnpm approve-buildsapprove-builds is one-time. You'll see a list of builds. Select "electron" and confirm. Then run these in two separate terminal windows:
# Terminal 1
pnpm dev
# Terminal 2
pnpm electron:devThe Apple top bar gets a Server menu for switching between your localhost and the main URL. A few things are still rough (DevTools PiP, OS notifications) but it works.
March 17, 2026: Beacon areas to know about
Beacon has a settings area (gear icon) and an Agents Studio area (1/0 icon in the left sidebar). Agents Studio is not finished yet. Both exist if you need them as a starting point for design work.
Design Studio prototypes can't be ported into Beacon wholesale. Use /prototype-migrate to map what carries over and what needs to be rebuilt.
View past updates
March 13, 2026: Beacon updates
New Adding data to Beacon guide: schema design, the controller pattern, and the mock data pipeline. Read it before adding any new entity type.
Plan files in /docs/plans/ are deleted when a branch merges. Move anything worth keeping to Jira before you merge.
/jira-create now sets story points automatically.
What's new in Claude
Latest announcements from Anthropic.
Auto mode for Claude Code
Mar 24, 2026 · Claude Code
Auto mode lets Claude Code make permission decisions with built-in safeguards — fewer interruptions than default, less risk than skipping permissions.
Put Claude to work on your computer
Mar 23, 2026 · Product announcements
Claude now opens your apps, navigates your browser, and runs your dev tools to complete tasks. Assign from your phone with Dispatch. Research preview on macOS.
Product management on the AI exponential
Mar 19, 2026 · Claude Code
Claude Code’s Head of Product Cat Wu shares how teams should rethink their workflows and roadmaps in the face of rapidly evolving model intelligence.
Code with Claude comes to San Francisco, London, and Tokyo
Mar 18, 2026 · Claude Code
Technical sessions, live demos of new capabilities, and office hours with Anthropic engineers—watch live or apply to attend.
View past updates
1M context is now generally available for Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6
Mar 13, 2026 · Product announcements
Standard pricing now applies across the full 1M window for both models, with no long-context premium. Media limits expand to 600 images or PDF pages.
Claude now creates interactive charts, diagrams and visualizations
Mar 12, 2026
Ask Claude to explain a concept or analyze your data, and it can respond with interactive charts, diagrams, and visualizations — rendered inline as part of the conversation.
Advancing Claude for Excel and PowerPoint
Mar 11, 2026 · Enterprise AI
Claude for Excel and PowerPoint now share full context across open files, and skills make any workflow instantly repeatable.
Bringing Code Review to Claude Code
Mar 9, 2026 · Claude Code
Claude Code now dispatches a team of agents on every PR to catch bugs that skims miss. Available in research preview for Team and Enterprise.
Common workflow patterns for AI agents—and when to use them
Mar 5, 2026 · Agents
Practical guidance on how to structure agent tasks using three common workflow patterns, with tradeoffs and benefits for each.
Updated March 26, 2026