CLI output has left-margin indentation that breaks copy-paste
Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Feb 11, 2026 by mrlerch Closed Feb 15, 2026
Description
All text output from Claude Code CLI has left-margin indentation/padding on every line. When selecting and copying text from the terminal, the extra leading spaces are included, which breaks pasted commands and code blocks.
Steps to Reproduce
- Run
claudein any terminal - Ask it to output a code block or shell command
- Select the output text and copy it
- Paste it — notice extra leading whitespace on every line
Environment
- macOS (Darwin 24.6.0)
- Reproducible in both Terminal.app (standard macOS terminal) and Warp
- Claude Code stable channel
Expected Behavior
Output lines should start at column 0 (or at least copy cleanly without invisible padding). Code blocks and commands should be copy-pasteable without manual whitespace cleanup.
Actual Behavior
Every output line appears to have a left margin/indent baked into the rendering. Copying from terminal captures these extra spaces, making pasted commands and code unusable without manual editing.
Notes
- This does not happen in the desktop Claude app (claude.ai), which renders code in proper
<code>blocks with a copy button — both the copy button and manual text selection work correctly there. - A practical workaround in the CLI would be a copy-to-clipboard mechanism for code blocks, similar to what the desktop app provides.
- This is especially painful for shell commands and multi-line code snippets where indentation matters (Python, YAML, etc.).
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