[BUG] Terminal scrollback buffer is cleared — cannot scroll up to view earlier conversation history

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?

In the current version, the terminal's scrollback buffer is cleared during a session, making it impossible to scroll up and review earlier messages within the same conversation.
Previously, users could scroll up in the terminal to see the full conversation history. Now the earlier portion of the conversation is gone from the terminal output entirely — not just
compacted from Claude's context, but visually removed from the terminal.

This is especially disruptive for long sessions where you need to reference earlier output (e.g., error messages, file diffs, or tool results that Claude produced earlier in the
conversation).

What Should Happen?

The terminal scrollback buffer should be preserved so users can scroll up to review the full conversation history within the same session, just like any normal CLI program. Context
compaction is fine for Claude's internal context window, but it should not affect the terminal's visual output history.

Error Messages/Logs

No error message — the scrollback content simply disappears silently.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start a Claude Code session: claude
2. Have a multi-turn conversation with several tool calls (e.g., read a few files, run some commands)
3. After enough turns, try scrolling up in the terminal
4. Earlier conversation turns are no longer visible in the scrollback buffer

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.90

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_