High-latency SSH: full screen redraws cause severe flickering

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Feb 1, 2026 by wangschien Closed Feb 1, 2026

Problem

Claude Code's TUI appears to do full screen clears + redraws on each update. Over high-latency SSH connections (e.g., Termius + dtach), this causes severe visible flickering/flashing on every output update.

Comparison

OpenAI's Codex CLI in the exact same environment (same SSH client, same dtach session, same latency) does not have this issue. It's hard to believe Codex does full screen redraws — if it did, it would be just as unusable. Whatever rendering approach Codex uses, it works fine over high-latency SSH; Claude Code does not.

Environment

  • SSH client: Termius
  • Session manager: dtach
  • Latency: ~100ms+
  • Also tried: tmux (causes screen corruption), mosh (even worse)

Request

Support incremental rendering, or at minimum provide a --low-bandwidth / --no-clear flag that avoids full screen clears. This would make Claude Code usable over remote SSH connections without resorting to non-interactive -p mode.

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