RTL (Right-to-Left) text direction support
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
- [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)
Problem Statement
Claude Code currently has no RTL support in its interface. For users who work in Hebrew, Arabic, or other RTL languages, this creates a significant usability problem:
When Claude responds with mixed Hebrew/English text, the display breaks and becomes difficult to read
There is no way to configure text direction in the conversation window
Users have to "guess" what is written due to incorrect text rendering
Request: Add RTL/bidirectional text support to the Claude Code interface (CLI + VSCode extension), similar to how VS Code handles RTL in the editor.
This would benefit all users writing in Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and other RTL languages.
Proposed Solution
Add CSS direction: rtl and unicode-bidi: embed support for the conversation
pane, either:
- Auto-detect based on the dominant language of each message
- Add a user setting to force RTL mode globally
- Apply per-paragraph bidi algorithm (Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm - UBA)
This is standard browser/CSS behavior and should be relatively low-effort to implement
in the VSCode extension UI.
Alternative Solutions
_No response_
Priority
High - Significant impact on productivity
Feature Category
Interactive mode (TUI)
Use Case Example
- I work in Hebrew and English daily (Parallels reseller, Israel/MEA market)
- Claude responds with mixed Hebrew/English text
- The text renders LTR, making Hebrew unreadable — letters appear reversed
and words break incorrectly
- With RTL support, Hebrew users could read responses clearly without
having to copy text to another app to understand it
Additional Context
_No response_
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8 Comments
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
+1 — Same issue here on the Claude Code desktop app (Electron) on Windows 11.
When typing or reading mixed Hebrew + English text, the line direction keeps flipping with every language switch, making it very hard to follow context. This affects both the input box and Claude's responses.
Environment:
Since Chrome extensions (like "Claude RTL") can't be installed in the Electron app, there is currently no workaround for desktop app users.
Would love to see at least a
direction: rtl/ auto-detect option in the app settings. 🙏+1 — This is a daily pain point for me as a Hebrew speaker using Claude Code in the VS Code extension.
My specific issue: When writing Hebrew with English terms mixed in (very common in dev conversations, e.g. referencing function names, file paths, or technical terms), the BiDi algorithm breaks the visual order of the sentence, making it hard to read.
What I've tried:
dalirnet.rtl-markdown,SarbandAkray.rtl)editor.unicodeBidi: "auto"in VS Code settingsWhat would help:
dir="auto"to message containers in the webview HTMLunicode-bidi: plaintextCSS to chat message elementsI’m joining this request! this is extremely critical.
+1
+1 I'm experiencing this issue as well. RTL language support is essential for a large portion of users, and the lack of proper right to left text direction makes Claude Code very difficult to use. Would love to see this addressed!
+1 — adding a specific surface that isn't mentioned above yet: Plan Mode's Plan Viewer (the panel that shows a plan file for approval) also renders RTL content (Hebrew) left-aligned instead of right-aligned, with the same BiDi issue described in this thread.
To generalize the ask across all the reports in this cluster, it would help if the fix covered every output surface, not just the chat webview:
Two concrete requirements that would resolve this for Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian alike:
direction: rtl(right-aligned), consistent with standard Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm behavior in browsers/markdown renderers.Applying
dir="auto"+unicode-bidi: plaintext(as suggested above) to all three surfaces, not just the chat webview, would cover this.+1 from a daily Hebrew user on Claude Desktop (Windows 10).
My entire workflow runs in Hebrew and the mixed-direction rendering makes long responses genuinely hard to read: any English token inside a Hebrew sentence (tool names, metrics like "CTR 17%", file paths) breaks the line direction, punctuation jumps to the wrong side, and bullet lists with mixed content become scrambled.
This affects every Hebrew, Arabic and Persian speaking user, hundreds of millions of potential users write RTL. Even a minimal fix would help enormously:
Happy to provide screenshots or test builds. Thank you!