Alacritty setup writes invalid TOML escape \x1b instead of \^[
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Feb 13, 2026 by TheHalfrican Closed Feb 14, 2026
Bug
When Claude Code sets up the Shift+Enter keybinding in Alacritty's alacritty.toml, it writes:
[[keyboard.bindings]]
key = "Return"
mods = "Shift"
chars = "\x1b\r"
\x is not a valid TOML escape sequence (TOML spec), which causes a parse error at the chars line and prevents Alacritty from loading the config entirely.
Expected behavior
The installer should use the TOML-compatible Unicode escape \^[:
chars = "\^[\r"
Reproduction
- Have an existing
alacritty.tomlconfig - Install Claude Code and add it to PATH
- Alacritty fails to load with a parse error on the
charsline
Environment
- OS: Windows 11 Pro (25H2)
- Alacritty: 0.16.1
- Config path:
%APPDATA%\alacritty\alacritty.toml
Notes
- The setup correctly creates a
.bakbackup before modifying the file - Reinstalling/updating Claude Code re-applies the broken escape, overwriting manual fixes
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