Developer Builds Self-Destructing launchd Job to Auto-Migrate Claude Code Model Settings

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A developer has shared a fully automated macOS launchd script designed to update the model field in Claude Code's settings.json on a specific date — July 7, 2026 — ahead of the claude-fable-5 model's end of life. The script backs up the existing settings file, rewrites the model value using jq, validates the resulting JSON, and sends a desktop notification upon completion. A key feature is self-destruction: after executing, the job unregisters itself via launchctl unload, preventing any future accidental re-runs. A date guard at the start of the script defends against launchd's catch-up behavior, which can trigger missed scheduled jobs on Mac reboot before the target date. The author describes the pattern as general-purpose for any one-time, date-specific configuration change that must happen exactly once without human intervention.

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