[BUG] Word wrap is broken: breaks mid-word instead of at word boundaries

Status Fixed / completed
Reported on v2.0.73
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 9 comments · opened Jan 7, 2026 · closed Jan 20, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
  • [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
  • [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Description

Text output in Claude Code is splitting words mid-character at the terminal edge instead of wrapping whole words to the next line.

Specific version where this broke appears to be 2.0.73. See below thread for screenshots showing that this was working in 2.0.72.

This bug is still present in 2.1.1 as of Jan 8 2026.

Expected behavior

Words wrap to the next line at word boundaries (spaces), keeping words intact.

Actual behavior

Words are split mid-character when they reach the terminal edge. For example, "not" becomes "no" at the end of one line and "t" at the start of the next.

Environment

  • macOS Terminal.app, Ghostty (Mac), Zed (Mac), Nova (Mac)
  • macOS version: 15.7.2
  • Claude Code version: 2.0.76, 2.1.1

Screenshots

Previously working:
<img width="1269" height="56" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f1277c6e-9f6d-4ba1-856b-345eef1eb359" />

No longer working:
<img width="1268" height="116" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a015377b-aed5-409f-a0f6-ab3f2855d9c9" />

Notes

This previously worked correctly. The issue appears to be a regression.

What Should Happen?

Words should wrap properly when they hit the right edge of the terminal window

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open macOS Terminal.app
  2. Set terminal width to 140 columns
  3. Run claude
  4. Ask any question that produces a response longer than the terminal width
  5. Observe words being split mid-character at the right edge

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.0.76

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

9 Comments

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Note that resizing the terminal window does not change broken behavior, it just changes the per-character wrap as you can see in the below shot of the same text as above but with the window made narrower:

<img width="1019" height="106" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/56de2d0d-d7e3-4392-8713-3adfe9f3440e" />

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Other terminal applications I've seen the behavior in:

  • Ghostty
  • Nova
  • Zed
justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Confirmed this is working properly in Claude Code 2.0.51. It respects my 140 column window and wraps as expected:

<img width="1265" height="178" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/abe4051e-38ec-4777-adbb-e640ea4adec9" />

It switches to character-level wrapping when resizing the window below the original 140 columns (this behavior is both fine and expected since CC initialized at 140 columns):

<img width="1045" height="188" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/23cdb98e-bdfd-4645-b62b-033dbb156ed3" />

And it remains displaying at 140 columns when resizing the window above 140 columns (also both fine and expected):

<img width="1368" height="160" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/edce6fdc-72cd-41d6-a20b-cdb295659f3c" />

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Specific version where this broke was 2.0.73.

Here is output from 2.0.72 where wrapping works fine:

<img width="1267" height="178" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e7a13f11-e7ac-4393-838b-0d89c233e127" />

<img width="579" height="97" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cd090fc6-ac80-4700-9150-de98b27bcb08" />

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Still broken in latest 2.1.1.

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Still broken in latest 2.1.5.

If anyone stumbles along this and is running the native install, you can rollback to the last good version where word wrap was working using:

claude install 2.0.72

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

Hello @dicksontsai and @ollie-anthropic, saw you on some other bug reports. I wouldn't be tagging people but IMO, a conversational system that can't _print its own conversation without splitting words across multiple lines_ is a pretty big issue, at least for me. I like being able to read the output without the add'l cognitive load of piecing words together when they break in the middle. 😵‍💫 Thanks in advance for any attention this can get, I really dislike sitting at 2.0.72.

Still broken in latest 2.1.6:

<img width="1090" height="223" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/03a8598c-23bf-4f55-bd94-c3bd29784056" />

Working fine in 2.0.72:

<img width="1088" height="217" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/875977cc-fce9-4f03-ade3-82defbf87d7a" />

justin-zeno · 7 months ago

This appears to be fixed in latest 2.1.12. Hooray! 🎉 🎉 🎉

Terminal.app:
<img width="1288" height="319" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f9495b5c-fc64-4c07-b476-de1a03bfb857" />

Ghostty.app:
<img width="1084" height="277" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8afc4373-c8c6-4121-842f-c6dae1e81e7a" />

github-actions[bot] · 7 months ago

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.