Bash tool description parameter not displayed in UI

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 29, 2026 by emmahyde Closed May 4, 2026

Summary

The Bash tool accepts a description parameter for providing a human-readable summary of what a command does. However, the CLI UI does not display this description — it always renders the first line of the command parameter instead.

Current behavior

When calling the Bash tool with both parameters:

  • command: python3 -c "import sys, os..."
  • description: "Run crystallization on app project memories"

The UI renders:

⏺ Bash(python3 -c "import sys, os…)

Expected behavior

The UI should render the description when provided:

⏺ Bash(Run crystallization on app project memories)

Falling back to the command text only when description is absent.

Why this matters

The description field exists specifically to make tool calls legible during review. When it's ignored in the display, the only way to get readable output is to prepend a # comment as the first line of the command — which is a workaround, not a solution. It also makes PreToolUse hooks that validate description less useful, since the user can't see whether the description was actually provided.

Reproduction

  1. Use Claude Code CLI
  2. Have Claude make a Bash tool call with a description parameter
  3. Observe the UI shows the command text, not the description

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