Feature request: option to disable Companion (Clatter)

Status Closed — not planned

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 6 comments · opened Apr 1, 2026 · closed Apr 9, 2026

Summary

Please add a setting to disable the Companion feature (the small mushroom named Clatter that appears in the input box).

Motivation

Some users prefer a cleaner interface without the Companion. Currently there is no documented or undocumented way to disable it — neither via settings.json fields nor environment variables. Attempts to add "companion": false or "enableCompanion": false to ~/.claude/settings.json are rejected by the schema validator.

Proposed Solution

Add a boolean field to the settings schema, for example:

{
  "companionEnabled": false
}

Or alternatively expose it as an environment variable:

CLAUDE_COMPANION_ENABLED=false

Current Behavior

No way to disable the Companion. Schema validation rejects unrecognized fields.

Expected Behavior

Setting companionEnabled: false (or equivalent) hides the Companion from the UI.

View original on GitHub ↗

6 Comments

github-actions[bot] · 6 months ago

Found 2 possible duplicate issues:

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helaynedamasiohaod · 6 months ago

Additional context from the user

Language support: The Companion (Clatter) only speaks English. There is no way to configure the language it uses. For non-English speakers, this adds an extra cognitive layer — the user has to mentally translate every comment the Companion makes, which defeats the purpose of a friendly UI element.

Accessibility concern — ADHD: The user has ADHD. An animated, attention-grabbing element that cannot be disabled is a significant distraction. For neurodivergent users, unexpected motion and unsolicited comments in the peripheral UI can break focus and disrupt workflow. This makes the Companion a net negative for a subset of users who cannot opt out.

Requested additions to the original feature request:

Option to disable the Companion entirely (original request)
Option to configure the Companion language (e.g., match the language field already present in settings.json)
Accessibility consideration: animated/active UI elements that cannot be suppressed are a known issue for users with ADHD and similar conditions — please treat this as an accessibility gap, not just a cosmetic preference

helaynedamasiohaod · 6 months ago

Additional concern: Companion comments about user's work process are harmful for neurodivergent users

The Companion (Clatter) makes ironic/snarky comments observing and judging how the user works — examples seen in practice:

'You're refactoring the same function for the third time.'
'They're debugging the debugger now.'
'Now watch them forget this lesson by Tuesday.'

For neurotypical users this may feel playful. For users with ADHD and/or ASD (autism spectrum), these comments:

Break focus — an unsolicited interruption mid-task is a context switch that is disproportionately costly for ADHD brains
Increase anxiety — comments framing repetitive work as failure trigger shame responses that are more intense for neurodivergent individuals
Feel hostile, not friendly — the ironic tone reads as mockery of non-linear work patterns that are characteristic of ADHD

Non-linear, iterative, repetitive work is not a flaw. It is a valid cognitive style. A tool embedded in a developer's terminal should not comment on or judge it.

Request: If the Companion cannot be disabled, at minimum provide an option to suppress commentary about the user's work patterns. A silent or neutral companion would already be a significant accessibility improvement.

Wituz · 6 months ago

You can disable it with /buddy off

alii · 6 months ago

Thank you for trying out the buddy. It was a small April Fools feature and has been removed in the latest release, so closing this as not planned.