Anthropic Upgrade & Migration Skill

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_MODEL environment 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.

Agent Skills: Anthropic Upgrade & Migration

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files