Escape key not received in Ghostty terminal

Description

Escape key does not work at all in Claude Code when running inside Ghostty terminal. No Escape-bound actions fire — including dismissing the help overlay (? then Escape), chat:cancel, or app:interrupt.

Environment

• Claude Code version: latest (installed via CLI)
• Terminal: Ghostty 1.3.1 (stable)
• OS: macOS (Darwin 25.2.0)
• TERM: xterm-ghostty
• Shell: zsh
• Not inside tmux/screen

Reproduction steps

1. Open Ghostty with default config (no custom keybindings)
2. Run claude
3. Press ? to open help overlay
4. Press Escape — overlay does NOT close

What was tried

• Ctrl+[ (sends same 0x1B byte as Escape): also does not work
• Custom keybindings.json binding escape to app:interrupt in Global and Task contexts: no effect
• Ghostty config keybind = escape=unbind and keybind = escape=text:\x1b: no effect
• TERM=xterm-256color: no effect
• No key remapping tools installed (no Karabiner, BetterTouchTool, Hammerspoon, etc.)
• Ghostty terminfo entry (xterm-ghostty) looks standard

Expected behavior

Escape key should work for all default bindings (chat:cancel, help:dismiss, app:interrupt when configured, etc.)

Notes

Ctrl+C works fine as an interrupt. The issue is specific to the Escape key (and Ctrl+[) not being recognized by Claude Code.