Garbled / flickering terminal output — page 2
Escape-sequence handling corrupts the rendered TUI in some terminals.
888 issues · 100 open · 788 resolved (89%) · first seen Feb 26, 2025
First response · integration
What to do now
Most likely: A local integration or child process did not satisfy Claude Code’s expected contract.
- Isolate the failing MCP server, shell command or editor integration.
- Run that dependency directly and capture its exit code and stderr.
- Compare with a clean configuration before editing global settings.
These are conservative triage steps, not an official Anthropic fix. Use the issue and workaround evidence below before making a destructive configuration change.
Is this getting better or worse?
This class of problem is converging. 147 new reports in the last 90 days vs 289 in the 90 before — -49%. The open backlog peaked at 151 in 2026-07 and sits at 100 today.
Derived by counting each matching issue from its creation date until it closed. First-party
computation over the anthropics/claude-code tracker — the trend is not published
anywhere upstream.
Which builds report this
492 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 165 releases. Heaviest reporters:
- Claude Code v2.1.92
- Claude Code v2.0.76
- Claude Code v2.1.90
- Claude Code v2.1.220
- Claude Code v2.1.37
- Claude Code v2.1.119
- Claude Code v2.1.63
- Claude Code v2.0.73
Report volume, not a defect count: an issue can mention a build without that build having caused the failure. Versions come from the version string in the bug-report template, matched against real published tags.
Do these get fixed?
Median time to close is 29 days across 788 closures. Of the 788 closures with a recorded reason, 19% were closed as completed and 637 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-10.
Workarounds reported by the community
264 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:
- [BUG] In-progress Call causes Screen Flickering
- @bcherny Not write tool, Claude created a here document to workaround not wanting to read the existing file. Not using verbose mode. --- │ Settings │ │ Configure Claude Code preferences │ │ │ │ ❯ Auto-compact true │ │ │…
Found in the thread of #769 · still open - Terminal Flickering
- In case someone is looking for a workaround, for some reason enabling "Maximize throughput at the cost of higher latency" option in iTerm2 (latest beta, not sure if that matters) stopped flickering on it's tracks, as soo…
Found in the thread of #1913 · still open - [BUG] Terminal rendering corruption in tmux - text overlaps and overwrites previous output
- …ut. The corruption persists until the session is restarted. Workaround Only reliable fix is or restarting the session. Related Issues - 769 — Screen flickering caused by full-buffer redraw on status indicator updates - 8…
Found in the description of #29937 · still open - [FEATURE] Video Input Support in Claude Code
- …of course, that's exactly what I've done also, but it is a workaround, not a real solution.
Found in the thread of #12676 · still open - [BUG] After the recent updates Claude Code jumps and loses track of scroll position in Terminal window
- ~~A workaround for iTerm2 until the issue is properly fixed in Claude Code:~~ ~~Settings - Advanced - Terminal - disable "App may turn on Focus Reporting"~~ UPD. It appears the issue wasn't reproducing for me in certain…
Found in the thread of #18299 · resolved
Excerpts are quoted from the linked issue so you can judge relevance before opening it. Threads that only ask for a workaround, or report that there is none, are excluded. These are community suggestions, not official guidance from Anthropic — read the full thread before applying one.
Matching issues 101–200
Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments). Listing the top 300 of 888 matches; the statistics above cover all 888.
- Severe screen flickering in VS Code/Cursor integrated terminal on Windows
- [Bug] Terminal output flickering/jumping on macOS across IDE and native terminals
- Sticky prompt header does not appear when scrolled up (fullscreen renderer, 2.1.252, iTerm2, no tmux)
- [BUG] Korean (Hangul) text is garbled/corrupted in AskUserQuestion and TodoWrite card UI (VSCode extension)
- [BUG] Fullscreen renderer (CLAUDE_CODE_NO_FLICKER=1) suspends with SIGTTIN on launch in iTerm2 3.6.1164; mouse tracking leaks into shell (works in Ghostty)
- 2.1.154 regression: bridge/remote-control session replay re-sends persisted (empty-text, signed) thinking blocks -> 400 'thinking blocks cannot be modified', session unrecoverable
- [BUG] Opus produces garbled multi-script output (Cyrillic/CJK/Tibetan mixed into English), triggers misleading usage policy violation
- [BUG] Terminal viewport jitter / aggressive auto-scrolling during task execution
- [Bug] CLI output formatting broken - unreadable text rendering
- [Bug] High CPU Usage and Persistent Flickering During Execution
- Conflict between `claude` console screen management and GPG `pinentry` during secret key passphrase prompt for Git commit signing.
- dark-ansi theme: expanded message background (userMessageBackgroundHover) collides with subtle/inactive text on color7, making expanded tool calls unreadable in fullscreen
- TUI rendering: /agents view lines stack/overlap on Windows Terminal (2.1.140)
- [BUG] Duplicate / flickered output in terminal scrollback on long sessions (classic renderer)
- Terminal content disappears during streaming on Windows Terminal - Post Installing Everything Claude Code
- RTL (Right-to-Left) support for Hebrew/Arabic in VSCode extension chat
- Haiku auto-downgrade mid-conversation destroys user work — please stop silent model switching
- [BUG] corrupt output with `/context`
- [BUG] Windows CC Garbled Plan Mode Output
- [BUG] No way to seek/jump in long scrollback — native terminal scrollbar lost, in-app scroll painfully slow (macOS Terminal, Konsole over RDP)
- [BUG] Cursor position and rendering corruption in long sessions on macOS (iTerm2)
- [TUI] Effort level indicator flickers — should be persistent or hideable
- [BUG] /copy command corrupts UTF-8 characters on Windows again (regression from #22346)
- [BUG] Pasting multi-line markdown into CLI silently drops/corrupts text chunks
- Display issues on Windows 10: black screen in Windows Terminal, garbled output in CMD
- Status line content leaks into main output area during streaming
- [Bug] UI flickering on new version
- [BUG] Screen flickers on every keystroke after resuming session with PostToolUse hooks
- [BUG] Flickering in the CLI
- Constant flickering.
- [BUG] JediEmulator - Unhandled Control Sequence
- [BUG] Fullscreen TUI: Ctrl+click opens links twice in Windows Terminal (duplicate mouse dispatch)
- Caps Lock input-source switch double-flips (Hebrew ⇄ English) in Desktop app chat input
- Malformed tool-call emission: literal "court" replaces <function_calls> opener, antml: namespace stripped, block stored as text (session hangs)
- [BUG] Opus 4.8 fabricates user turns across 3 related sessions — one executed a real unauthorized commit+push on a fabricated confirmation (JSONL-verified)
- [BUG] Screen flickering when navigating into Agent session via arrow key (Windows Terminal)
- [BUG] Agent view: scrolling inside attached session leaves stale left-column artifacts (Windows Terminal 2.1.141)
- Right-click context menu broken in Ghostty with CLAUDE_CODE_NO_FLICKER=1
- [BUG] Startup ASCII banner reappears mid-session — conversation appears to disappear then returns (v2.1.89, Windows)
- Messages disappear from terminal display on Windows 11 + VSCode after v2.1.89 update
- [BUG] RTL (Right-to-Left) text rendering broken in latest version
- TUI rendering corruption when multiple Task agents run in parallel
- [BUG] Severe input stuttering/jumping when typing fast in TUI - characters appear in bursts
- [BUG] MCP tool streaming output causes scroll jumping/flickering with long conversation context
- [BUG] List items and tables not rendering correctly on Windows (v2.0.73)
- Garbled skill data, when using multi-line syntax
- [BUG] Memory leak: Claude process consuming 23GB RAM and 143% CPU after 14 hours of runtime
- [BUG] Claude code bash command execution, output Chinese characters appear as garbled text
- [BUG] Fullscreen TUI: mouse wheel is a complete no-op on native Windows across multiple terminals
- Sandbox masking placeholders are created in the project working directory instead of $HOME, appearing as untracked files on every Bash command
- [BUG] VS Code extension: copying an assistant message from the chat pane yields garbled/concatenated text (unpasteable)
- Fullscreen/NO_FLICKER renderer: Option+Delete (Meta+Backspace) word-delete stops working — classic renderer unaffected
- Mouse cursor invisible in session after returning from agents view (v2.1.169 regression)
- Agents view: navigating into an agent and back (←) leaves stale/garbled frame until terminal resize
- [Bug] Tool-layer unreliability in long/compacted sessions: duplicated results, delayed delivery, empty/garbled file reads
- [BUG] Claude Desktop App — Screen Flickering & Mouse Lag on Windows
- [Bug] File Read Encoding Corruption Triggers False Positive Usage Policy Block
- [Bug] Slash command menu not triggering mid-input in terminal mode
- [Windows] Clipboard copy produces garbled Chinese text after v2.1.92 update
- [BUG] Korean text gets corrupted when copying (via /copy or selection) with new renderer enabled
- [BUG] TUI flickers/cursor jumps in tmux during streaming output (missing DECSET 2026 synchronized output)
- [BUG] RTL text (Persian/Arabic/Hebrew) renders reversed/broken in Claude Code VS Code/Cursor webview
- [Feature Request] Claude in Chrome: Analyze recorded GIFs/video for dynamic UI testing
- [Bug] Text input lag and garbled output when switching between Claude Code and Neovim
- [BUG] Flickering display
- Add in-conversation Find (Ctrl/Cmd+F) to the Claude Code VS Code extension
- [BUG] opus 4.8 Tool invocation XML tags intermittently corrupted — antml:invoke rendered as raw text
- [BUG] Windows VS Code terminal output becomes garbled (CJK-looking glyphs) after ~60–90 minutes of session
- [BUG] U+FFFD corruption in Cyrillic text — both streaming output and Edit/Write tool
- Voice mode: add multilingual support (French transcription is poor)
- Let us configure how fast spinner verbs rotate
- [Bug] Terminal flickering/rapid scrolling during response streaming on Windows 11
- [Bug] Character encoding issues causing excessive token consumption and code rework
- [Bug] Terminal flicker during execution causes host IDE cursor crash
- # Bug Report: Vietnamese Input Not Working in Claude Code CLI
- [BUG] New Explore subagent frequently tries to return more than 8192 tokens.
- [BUG] Thinking throbber gets stuck in infinite refresh loop
- [BUG] Terminal interaction is broken in desktop Ubuntu - cannot use
- VSCode extension: focus rapidly jumps between Claude Code tabs on startup; new-tab icon opens session in wrong editor group
- Mouse wheel scroll (and arrow keys) trigger prompt-history recall instead of scrolling transcript, in JetBrains (PhpStorm) integrated terminal
- [FEATURE] Force table rendering independent of terminal width / font size
- [BUG] Mouse-wheel/trackpad scroll far too fast in fullscreen TUI on Cursor (macOS), even at CLAUDE_CODE_SCROLL_SPEED=1
- [Bug] v2.1.156+ regression: native Read/Bash return fabricated-but-plausible content, triggering agent confabulation cascades
- [BUG] Claude in Chrome v1.0.70: Account-level OAuth scope missing on Max plan causes infinite retry loop, side panel flicker, and forced logout
- Opus 4.7: Korean text garbling in tool_use JSON parameters (AskUserQuestion)
- [BUG] Plan mode stale file + default "clear context" exit creates silent work rollback risk
- [BUG] Persistent UI rendering glitches during chat output and text editing
- [Bug] Screen flickering persists in version 2.1.17
- [BUG] (regression) subagent swarm completion in long running tasks causes severe flickering and CPU usage
- [Bug] LSP plugin installation fails: path mixes POSIX and Windows formats on macOS
- [BUG] Windows: Output text displays with garbled formatting, skipped lines, and misaligned text
- [BUG] Ubuntu/Gnome terminal screen flickering
- [Bug] Ctrl+O diff output corrupted with garbled text and malformed line numbers
- Constant flickering.
- [BUG] TUI Terminal overflow causes memory leaks resulting in application failure
- [BUG] SubAgents Expansions Broken (breaks terminal in Cursor) - with Suggestion on fix
- [BUG] Claude Desktop (Windows MSIX): severe flickering on NVIDIA RTX 50-series, fixed by --disable-direct-composition, but MSIX packaging blocks applying the workaround
- [BUG] Streaming output trimmed live by prompt repaint — long responses never reach terminal scrollback
- Bare inline triple backticks in a message make the fullscreen renderer display the ENTIRE message as raw markdown (2.1.198, macOS, WezTerm)
- Model emitted orphan \uD83A surrogate + garbled Korean inside AskUserQuestion, bricking session