Claude API Message Threads Let Agents Skip Resending Full Conversations

Anthropic has launched public beta of message threads on the Messages API, which lets developers send a full conversation once and then only new messages plus the previous response ID on later turns. The server reconstructs the rest of the conversation, which Anthropic says lowers request size and time to first token for long agent loops. Threads are opt-in via a beta header and a new request field, and they work across Claude API and several cloud platforms. However, threads are best-effort and expire five minutes after their last request, so developers are advised to keep their own copy of every message. Anthropic reports a roughly 35% drop in median time to first token for 500K-1M token requests, a figure the author has not independently measured.
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