[BUG] Ctrl+W deletes across space boundaries, eating multiple words
Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Mar 15, 2026 by sswthrower Closed Mar 18, 2026
Description
Ctrl+W in the Claude Code input prompt does not respect space as a word boundary. It deletes more text than expected, crossing spaces that should act as delimiters.
Steps to Reproduce
- Type
abc 123in the Claude Code input prompt - With cursor at the end (after
3), press Ctrl+W - Expected:
123is deleted, leavingabc - Actual: Both
123andabcare deleted
Another example:
- Type
abc "(abc, space, double quote) - Press Ctrl+W
- Expected:
"is deleted (or"and the space), leavingabc - Actual:
", the space, andabcare all deleted in one keystroke
Expected Behavior
Ctrl+W should behave like unix-word-rubout (delete backward to the previous whitespace) or at minimum like backward-kill-word (which still respects spaces between alphanumeric tokens). Deleting abc 123 in a single Ctrl+W matches neither standard behavior.
Environment
- Claude Code version: 2.1.76
- Reproduced on Linux and Windows; likely platform-independent since the input handling is in Claude Code itself
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