[BUG] v2.1.94 silently changed Ctrl+L default from app:redraw to chat:clearInput
Bug Description
v2.1.94 changed the default keybinding for Ctrl+L from app:redraw (screen refresh) to chat:clearInput (wipe prompt text) without any mention in the release notes.
This is a breaking change to muscle memory — Ctrl+L has meant "redraw/refresh" in every terminal, shell, and REPL for decades. Silently changing it to a destructive input action (clearing what you've typed) is a serious regression.
Verification
Confirmed by searching the binaries directly:
$ strings ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.92 | grep -o '"ctrl+l":"[^"]*"'
"ctrl+l":"app:redraw"
$ strings ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.94 | grep -o '"ctrl+l":"[^"]*"'
"ctrl+l":"chat:clearInput"
In v2.1.92, ctrl+l was bound to app:redraw in the Global context. In v2.1.94, a new ctrl+l → chat:clearInput binding was added in the Chat context, which takes precedence over the Global binding.
Expected Behavior
Ctrl+L should remain bound to app:redraw, matching its behavior in v2.1.92 and every other terminal application.
Workaround
Simply rebinding ctrl+l to app:redraw in the Chat context doesn't work — app:redraw is registered in the Global context and does nothing when invoked from Chat. You need to both null out the Chat binding and restore the Global one in ~/.claude/keybindings.json:
{
"bindings": [
{
"context": "Global",
"bindings": { "ctrl+l": "app:redraw" }
},
{
"context": "Chat",
"bindings": { "ctrl+l": null }
}
]
}
Environment
- Version: 2.1.96 (regression introduced in 2.1.94)
- Platform: Linux (WSL2)
5 Comments
Filed by an AI, but suffered by a human.
One more note: something that I left too implicit is that changes like that -- even if intentional -- should absolutely be mentioned in any form of release notes, since it's a very visible and very breaking change.
Omg, please prioritize fixing this. I've lost several long inputs to this. Especially when writing a long input, I will reflexively type ctrl-L to clear the screen and move the input to the top of the terminal. Now, this IRREVOCABLY DELETES EVERYTHING YOU'VE TYPED. Very unfortunate bug.
This issue was fixed as of version 2.1.126.
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