Anthropic releases Opus 4.6 with new “Agent Teams”

On Thursday, Anthropic released the latest version of Opus. This is the most advanced model and one of particular importance to Claude Code. Opus 4.5 was only released last November, but with 4.6 the company has aimed to expand the model’s capabilities and appeal, enabling a more diverse range of uses and customers.

Perhaps the most notable addition to the latest version of Opus is the inclusion of what the company calls “agent teams,” or teams of agents that can break down larger tasks into smaller jobs.

“Rather than having one agent handle tasks sequentially, we can split the work among multiple agents, with each agent owning their own part and coordinating directly with other agents,” the company said. Scott White, head of product at Anthropic, likened the new feature to having a team of talented humans working for you, noting that by breaking down agents’ responsibilities, they can “coordinate in parallel and work faster.” Agent Teams is currently available in research preview for API users and subscribers.

Opus 4.6 also comes with a longer context window. This means that the program has the ability to recall more information per user session. The new model provides 1 million context tokens. This is comparable to what the company’s Sonnet (versions 4 and 4.5) currently offers. These context windows enable work involving larger code bases and also enable processing of larger documents, the company says.

The new version of Opus integrates Claude directly into PowerPoint as an accessible side panel. This is a step up from previous PowerPoint and chatbot integrations. Previously, users could tell Claude to create PowerPoint decks, but White said they now have to transfer the files to PowerPoint to edit the presentation. With direct help from Claude, you can now create presentations within PowerPoint.

White told TechCrunch that Opus has evolved from a highly competent model in a specific field, namely software development, to a program that is extremely useful for a “broader range” of knowledge workers. “I find that a lot of people who aren’t professional software developers use Claude Code simply because it’s a really great engine for doing tasks,” he said. White added that the people the company has seen using it include not only software engineers, but also product managers, financial analysts, and people from a variety of other industries.