[BUG] Voice mode completely broken in 2.1.83 — Space sends literal characters, recording never activates

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?

Holding Space sends literal space characters instead of activating push-to-talk recording. Voice mode cannot be activated by any means — /voice toggle off/on does not help. This is a regression introduced in 2.1.83 by the spacebar-swallowing fix (changelog: "Fixed space key being swallowed for up to 3 seconds after releasing voice hold-to-talk").

What Should Happen?

Holding Space should activate push-to-talk recording as it did in 2.1.81.

Error Messages/Logs

None. Space silently passes through as literal " " characters.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have voiceEnabled: true in settings (or run /voice to enable)
2. Hold spacebar
3. Spaces are typed into the input. No recording activates. No rainbow cursor.
4. /voice off then on does not fix it.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

2.1.81

Claude Code Version

2.1.83 (Claude Code)

Platform

Other

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Environment: Linux Mint 22.3 (Ubuntu 24.04), kernel 6.8.0-106-generic, GNOME Terminal, bash, PipeWire 1.0.5

Possible root cause: The 2.1.83 spacebar-swallowing fix seems to have broken voice activation entirely. It looks like the fix went too far — instead of just fixing the space-swallowing-during-processing issue from #37020, it broke the initial activation path too. Space presses are no longer intercepted by voice mode at all.

The /voice toggle doesn't help either, which suggests the issue is deeper than just the setting — something in how voice mode initializes its runtime state seems broken.

Possible fix: Whatever changed in 2.1.83 to fix the space-swallowing issue likely needs a more targeted approach that doesn't break the initial voice activation.

Related:

• #34012 (the startup init bug this fix was derived from)
• https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/37020 (an intermediate bug causing spacebar swallowing during processing)