[Question] Did the diff highlight colors (red/green background) change around v2.0.70?

Facing same issue. They look completely washed out for me now on my light theme.

Dark Mode: <img width="1099" height="509" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/258c04c1-720e-4018-b5e5-8575ac4f5c9e" />

Light Mode: <img width="827" height="410" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/858e3d47-a70e-4a91-9e30-f2dfe514ece9" />

Seems like the reason its appearing washed out is its using the same colors for Light Mode as Dark Mode?

Behaviour in 2.0.69:
Dark Mode: <img width="845" height="446" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/34ebf7d4-877f-4615-8581-cb8569ad9f28" />

Light Mode: <img width="832" height="451" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a45eda7a-3883-41d9-bd7a-45de28002e50" />

Hoping this is a bug because the diff colouring is terrible. So hard to see. Please revert this change if it was intentional 🙏🏼

This is running on macOS, Ghostty terminal with the Nordfox dark theme, and was perfect prior to ~v2.0.68/70 (unclear which version changed things).

<img width="1816" height="1208" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/60f2a4dd-864b-4ba2-a815-1cc150364871" />

dude, same, I'm auDHD and claude code is my special interest and this change is wild to just drop on us like they did (the volume of the colors is too loud in dark mode)

This is what the update looks like for me in Ghostty with TokyoNight Storm. The darker highlights and retaining the text's syntax highlight make it really hard to read.

This seems like it should be marked as a bug.

<img width="902" height="818" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4ee1efd6-cecb-4b31-af95-ed235e23fed2" />

<img width="896" height="812" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f0a3260a-1737-4318-bba1-993f413ed8ec" />

Dark theme on Windows look super hiddeous now

<img width="1631" height="538" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4fae3c40-d2d0-42ff-8baf-0f2196abcd47" />

pls revert!!

<img width="754" height="344" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2f6d202c-a623-4fba-bfaf-ec5174bb0f9e" />

Horrible, tasteless update: washed out backgrounds on light mode are hard to read and monokai in dark mode is hideous. Where is the improvement in here?

Same. My setup looks similar as @leeovery. Diffs are really difficult to read now.

Found the cause in the release notes for v2.0.71:

Version 2.0.71: - New syntax highlighting engine for native build

This confirms the color change was intentional as part of the new highlighting engine, not a bug.

However, given the feedback here (washed out on light themes, too intense on dark themes), it seems like the new engine may need some color calibration adjustments.

The previous color scheme had a calm, subtle tone that was easy on the eyes. I'm not sure why it was changed to something more jarring. Sometimes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies.

I just updated to .71 thinking they might have tweaked it but it's still terrible. Almost bad enough to stop using ClaudeCode!

Please somebody revert this update or fix the colours.

We can handle so many bugs and weirdness but stuff like this is damaging to a lot of us. It throws me off completely with the wrong colours as a ND. 🙏🏼

Hi folks, this did ship in 2.0.70 (it got tagged in the wrong changelog version).

Most of the screenshots appear to be using 256-color mode. You'll get much better color combinations if you have a way to enable 24-bit color (usually by setting the COLORTERM=truecolor environment variable, though your terminal emulation stack needs to support it, so your mileage may vary). The "ANSI colors only" setting in /theme may also look better to some of you, since it does not use background colors.

You can use the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT=off to remove the syntax highlighting entirely, leaving just the diff added/removed background colors. You can also set CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT to the name of a built-in bat theme to one that better matches your preferences. See bat --list-themes. (Popular themes include gruvbox-dark, Dracula, Solarized (dark) and Solarized (light))

there is now way to enable 24bit colors in windows powershell / pwsh

<img width="1153" height="629" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/08851e12-df86-4e54-9364-87b1ece5f765" />

can you add the old color scheme as "Legacy" back to claude code?

@shawnm-anthropic

Thanks for the response!

Setting CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT helps with the syntax theme but the red and green for diffing are still very harsh to the eye, even with a nicer theme:

macOS, Ghostty (Nordfox), CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT=Nord:

<img width="1434" height="720" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/322d0955-26e6-4a35-9652-90c31e2158dd" />

Could the diff green/red be pulled from the same bat theme perhaps? Or be independently configurable?

Hi folks, this did ship in 2.0.70 (it got tagged in the wrong changelog version). Most of the screenshots appear to be using 256-color mode. You'll get much better color combinations if you have a way to enable 24-bit color (usually by setting the COLORTERM=truecolor environment variable, though your terminal emulation stack needs to support it, so your mileage may vary). The "ANSI colors only" setting in /theme may also look better to some of you, since it does not use background colors. You can use the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT=off to remove the syntax highlighting entirely, leaving just the diff added/removed background colors. You can also set CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT to the name of a built-in bat theme to one that better matches your preferences. See bat --list-themes. (Popular themes include gruvbox-dark, Dracula, Solarized (dark) and Solarized (light))

It's worth noting that CLAUDE_CODE_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHT does not pick up themes in our ~/.config/bat/themes or whatever theme is set by export BAT_THEME

Great news! Version 2.0.74 added ctrl+t shortcut to toggle syntax highlighting:

Added ctrl+t shortcut in /theme to toggle syntax highlighting on/off

Now we can easily switch between enabled/disabled directly from the theme picker.

Before (Monokai Extended enabled):
<img width="960" height="439" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8f6ae7f1-b6bd-49b0-9df4-bba0e0baaeb8" />

After (Syntax highlighting disabled):
<img width="960" height="438" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/20bf9a14-cd8f-4c67-a192-a34c079d9704" />

Thanks for addressing this issue! The toggle approach is a nice compromise - those who like the new syntax highlighting can keep it, while others can disable it.

Resolved in v2.0.74 with the new syntax highlighting toggle (ctrl+t in /theme). Thanks for the fix!

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.