Channels: the expanded view (ctrl+o) does not show a channel message's content; the one-line summary is cut at a fixed width

Status Open
Reported on v2.1.296
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Oct 13, 2026

Summary

A message pushed with notifications/claude/channel renders in the terminal as one collapsed line, cut at a fixed width, and the expanded view (ctrl+o) shows the same collapsed line. The full content reaches the model, but the person watching the session can never read it in the terminal.

Observed (Claude Code 2.1.296, macOS, measured in a private tmux session)

  • Each channel push renders as ← <server name>: <start of content>…, with newlines flattened to spaces.
  • The line is cut at 76 characters whatever the pane width: measured at 120, 200 and 240 columns. That leaves about 60 characters of content.
  • Pressing ctrl+o shows the same one-line summary. The body is never shown.
  • The receiving session's transcript holds the full content, so the model sees everything and only the human view is truncated.
  • Example, from a peer-messaging channel server:

← claude-peers: from SENDER (abc12345): Gate merged. Next: the follow-up issue is …

Request

  1. Let the expanded view (ctrl+o, and --verbose) show a channel message's full content, the way it does for other expandable rows.
  2. Optionally, let the collapsed summary use the available terminal width instead of a fixed cut.

Why it matters

Channels exist so external events and other agents can reach a session while a person watches it. Today the person sees only the first ~60 characters of each message. Servers can only work around this by front-loading the most important words.

View original on GitHub ↗