[BUG] read tool not printing to the terminal

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude code seems to think it's using the read tool to print the contents of a file to my terminal, but I don't see anything. I've tried on three different terminal apps, and it doesn't work for any of them.

What Should Happen?

The Read tool has two separate output paths:

1. Claude's view — The file contents are read from disk and returned into my context window (the API response). This is how I can see and reason about the file. This part is working fine.
2. Your terminal view — The Claude Code terminal UI (built with React/Ink) renders the tool output independently. This is the part that's broken for you.

the file is being read successfully, but the Ink-based terminal renderer isn't displaying tool output blocks to you.

Error Messages/Logs

❯ how does the read tool actually work?

⏺ claude-code-guide(How Read tool works)
  ⎿  Done (5 tool uses · 36.8k tokens · 27s)
  (ctrl+o to expand)

⏺ Here's how it works:

  The Read tool has two separate output paths:

  1. Claude's view — The file contents are read from disk and returned into my context window (the API response). This is how I can see and reason about the file. This part is working fine.
  2. Your terminal view — The Claude Code terminal UI (built with React/Ink) renders the tool output independently. This is the part that's broken for you.

  So the file is being read successfully, but the Ink-based terminal renderer isn't displaying tool output blocks to you. This explains why:
  - I can see and summarize file contents (API path works)
  - You see nothing (terminal rendering path is broken)
  - It happens across all terminals (it's not terminal-specific, it's the Ink renderer)

  This is almost certainly a bug in Claude Code 2.1.81's rendering layer. I'd suggest:

  1. Try updating: ! claude update
  2. File a bug at https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues — the key detail is that tool results reach the AI but don't render in the terminal UI, reproducible across Terminal.app, Ghostty, and cmux on macOS.

Steps to Reproduce

Open termainl

Claude "can you show me this file: filename/goes/here"

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.81

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_