jeremylongshore Anthropic Upgrade & Migration
Overview
Upgrade the Anthropic SDK to new versions and migrate between Claude model generations. Covers version checking, changelog review, model ID updates across the codebase, output comparison testing, and gradual rollout via environment variables.
SDK Upgrade
# Check current version
npm list @claude-ai/sdk
pip show anthropic
# Upgrade to latest
npm install @claude-ai/sdk@latest
pip install --upgrade anthropic
# Check changelog for breaking changes
# https://github.com/anthropics/claude-sdk-typescript/releases
Model Migration Checklist
When Anthropic releases new model versions:
- Read the model card — check for behavior changes, new capabilities
- Update model IDs — find and replace old IDs
# Find all model references in your codebase
grep -r "claude-" --include="*.ts" --include="*.py" --include="*.json" .
- Test with new model — run integration tests against both old and new
- Compare outputs — spot-check key prompts for quality regression
- Update max_tokens — new models may have different limits
- Gradual rollout — use env var to control model selection
// Environment-based model selection for safe rollout
const MODEL = process.env.CLAUDE_MODEL || 'claude-sonnet-4-20250514';
const message = await client.messages.create({
model: MODEL,
max_tokens: 1024,
messages,
});
Common Migration Issues
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Model ID not found (404) | Update to current model ID |
| Different output format | Adjust parsing — test with real prompts |
| Higher/lower token usage | Re-evaluate max_tokens and cost estimates |
| Deprecated SDK method | Check SDK changelog for replacement |
Output
- SDK upgraded to latest version
- Model IDs updated across all files
- Integration tests passing with new model
- Output quality verified against previous model
- Gradual rollout configured via
CLAUDE_MODELenvironment variable
Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| API Error | Check error type and status code | See clade-common-errors |
Examples
See SDK Upgrade commands, grep patterns for finding model references, environment-based model selection, and Common Migration Issues table above.
Resources
Next Steps
See clade-known-pitfalls for common mistakes to avoid.
Prerequisites
- Existing Anthropic SDK integration to upgrade
- Access to the codebase with grep/search capability
- Test suite for comparing model outputs
Instructions
Step 1: Review the patterns below
Each section contains production-ready code examples. Copy and adapt them to your use case.
Step 2: Apply to your codebase
Integrate the patterns that match your requirements. Test each change individually.
Step 3: Verify
Run your test suite to confirm the integration works correctly.