Feature request: compact/tiny display mode (--tiny flag)

Summary

Claude Code's UI chrome (spinner tips, status lines, prompt footer, spacing/padding) consumes a disproportionate amount of screen real estate on very small displays, making it difficult or impossible to use effectively. A --tiny or --compact CLI flag that globally minimizes UI chrome would make Claude Code usable on constrained terminals.

Use case

I run Claude Code on Even Realities G2 smart glasses via a custom SSH terminal client (g2-terminal). The display constraints are extreme:

• Resolution: 576×288 pixels per eye, 4-bit greyscale (16 shades of green), single built-in font
• Terminal size: 50 columns × 8 visible rows
• No font size control — the G2 SDK provides a single fixed font

At this size, Claude Code's UI chrome often takes up half or more of the visible display. Specific pain points:

• Spinner tips take up 3–4 of 8 visible rows (workaround: spinnerTipsEnabled: false — thank you for this setting)
• Thinking/loading status sometimes gets pushed off-screen entirely
• Prompt footer (keybinding hints, status bar) consumes precious rows
• Message padding/spacing between elements is generous for a normal terminal but wasteful at 8 rows
• commands like /rewind are unusable due to spacing in the picker UI

Proposed solution

A --tiny flag (or CLAUDE_CODE_TINY=1 env var) that:

1. Eliminates all non-essential chrome — no tips, no keybinding hints in footer, minimal status bar
2. Reduces padding/margins — tighten Yoga layout node spacing globally (0–1 line gaps instead of 2–3)
3. Shortens status text — e.g. "Thinking..." instead of "Thinking with high effort" + token counter
4. Condenses tool output — collapse file paths, truncate long tool result previews more aggressively

This is distinct from CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE which disables functionality (MCP, plugins, skills). Tiny mode should keep all features — just minimize the pixels spent on UI chrome.

Who else this helps

Anyone using Claude Code in:

• Small tmux/screen panes
• Split terminal layouts (e.g. side-by-side with an editor)
• Embedded terminal panels in IDEs with limited height
• Other wearable/AR displays
• Low-resolution or accessibility-constrained environments

Environment

• Claude Code v2.1.85
• macOS (arm64)
• Terminal: Even Realities G2 glasses via SSH → xterm.js headless → BLE → glasses display