Right Alt key leaves visible `[25~` escape sequence residue in input
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Feb 15, 2026 by zleo77818 Closed Feb 16, 2026
Bug Description
When using voice dictation software (e.g., Typeless) that binds the Right Alt key as a push-to-talk hotkey, each dictated sentence is prefixed with [25~ in Claude Code's input field.
This happens because pressing/releasing the Right Alt key generates the ANSI escape sequence \e[25~ in the terminal. The ESC byte (0x1B) is consumed by the input handler, but the remaining [25~ is not recognized as part of an escape sequence and leaks into the input as literal text.
Steps to Reproduce
- Install a voice dictation tool (e.g., Typeless) and set Right Alt as the push-to-talk hotkey
- Open Claude Code in a terminal
- Press and hold Right Alt, speak a sentence, then release
- The transcribed text appears with
[25~prepended
Expected Behavior
The escape sequence should be fully consumed/discarded, and only the dictated text should appear in the input.
Actual Behavior
Every dictated sentence is prefixed with [25~:
[25~This is my first sentence.
[25~This is my second sentence.
Additional Context
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
- Terminal: Windows Terminal (Git Bash)
- OpenAI Codex CLI running in the same terminal does NOT have this issue — it properly handles the escape sequence. This indicates the problem is specific to Claude Code's input handling, not the terminal itself.
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