Dark mode redesign on claude.ai/code feels like a regression prefer the previous version (or something else)

It's become incredibly unpleasant to work with the software after this redesign. Seriously, bring back the old one or give me a choice or something.

This feels like a step back. The new theme is harder to read — the previous dark theme had better colors, including a warm orange-brown highlight for inline code blocks. Please consider adding an option to revert to the old style.
Observed in: Claude Windows desktop app, Code tab.

Yes agreed, I'm new to Claude Code and thought I'd accidentally changed a hidden theme setting! Really don't like the new look at all, far too harsh and offputting.

Agreeing with the above — and I want to add that the light mode has the same problems. The saturated blue text on a pure white background is painfully harsh; my eyes genuinely hurt after reading it for a while. It feels like a step down from the previous theme, not an improvement.

On top of that, the layout change hits hard for long-time desktop users: both user and assistant messages are now left-aligned. The old asymmetric layout (user on the right, assistant on the left) was something a lot of us relied on to scan a conversation at a glance. Losing that muscle memory overnight is rough.

Please consider:

• An option to revert to the previous UI, or

• Customizable themes / layout so users can keep what worked for them.

Yeah, this re-design is terrible. Especially the light mode.

It is very inconsistent from the chat mode UI that is nice, and what the old code mode used to (almost) look like.

Problems:

• Too compact. Ugly. No ways to revert to "normal" layout (like chat mode). No need for terrible small buttons on a large screen.
• Text too small. Hard to read. No ways to revert to “normal” size (like chat mode). Zooming the entire interface is not a good option.
• Line length is way too long. Hard to read. In chat mode lines are 90-100-ish characters long. In code mode they are now 160-ish characters long. Terrible UX.
• Left aligned blue message bubbles. Just why??? The design in chat mode is nice to look at. Revert this.

thks , the new design is AWFUL

I have a neurological disease so I have problems looking at high contrast GUIs... Also, overly white GUIs also mess with my eyes, because of the bright light constantly. Plus it's terrible when working evenings. I always work with dark mode in apps, with gentle dark gray background which helps. How Claude on Windows was before this update was perfect. Gentle on the eyes and eye health.

This is the worst thing they've done this far. Just recently upgraded to Claude Max and have started to transition most of my work from OpenAI to Claude, and then they do this?

I cannot understand what idi*t came up with this!?

this must have been faulty prompt...its impossible to make something like this by a dev and push it to production. unthinkable. make more version not just 2. not everyone is the same. AI can do these thing (when done properly) in matter of seconds.

Yes please have an option to go back to the old look

oh god, hate the blue, pls, a switch!

This bug/feature is an actual nightmare.

Oh my... please allow us the option to revert to previous UI. This is NOT pleasant.

yea wow. the UI color theme is just terrible. my eyes hurt watching the claude desktop app. it's insane how there is no color theme option either. ridiculous.

The new pure black background with blue user text is genuinely painful for long coding sessions. The previous dark theme (soft dark gray background, muted gray text) was comfortable and professional — exactly what you need when you're staring at it for 8-10 hours a day.
What's bizarre is that the Claude.ai chat interface in the same app still uses the old, readable color scheme. Open Settings — soft dark tones, white text, everything looks great. Switch to the Code chat — harsh black void with bright blue bubbles. Two completely different design languages in one product.
Request: Please either give us a theme picker with the old dark gray option, or at minimum match the Code chat styling to what the rest of Claude.ai already uses. The current chat interface colors are proof that your design team knows how to do this right — just apply it consistently.
Windows 11, Max plan, daily user.

its too dark and hard to read

It's hard for me to imagine how the new palette got both conceived of and approved, seems bizarre.
I agree with the OP and others, and I can't help but worry about future aesthetic updates after this one gets fixed (gets fixed... gets fixed... please).

Thank you Anthropic for all the vibey codey goodness, and for hopefully changing this!

copying my comment I made in a duplicate bug report on this issue:

Completely agree with this. UI has been made worse. The black background is way too dark.

Also a bad idea to drastically change the UI randomly - people are used to a certain UI in their all day workflow, and the change/shock has a negative effect on productivity, requiring an adjustment period. The old theme should have been left in.

The warm beige color in light mode has also gone on desktop?

Same regression on Windows 11. User-message bubbles render as saturated blue on near-black background — readability is significantly degraded in dark mode, especially for longer messages.

Compounding issue: the Claude Code Windows desktop app has no in-app theme toggle at all (unlike the CLI's /theme command), so there's no workaround available from within the app. Users are stuck with whatever the latest design ships.

+1 for either reverting to the prior dark theme or shipping a theme selector in Settings.

<img width="1919" height="1079" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6fae613a-caa9-491d-900d-685e2c55b0d6" />

Should we open up separate ticket, since claude code windows app (non-terminal) users who need dark mode (for accessibility reasons) are completely SOL.

Totally agree, the previous theme was much better. And please add the possibility to change

• Background color
• Text/foreground color
• Accent colors
• Contrast levels

In the config file

I was very happy working with the old color scheme.
Now it's really hard to read and work with it.
Please revert it to what it was

Can't say I'm a fan of the new look, so +1 on this

I found this thread searching for a way to fix this bug.

I can't agree with this enough. The new dark theme is horrendously hard to read. Blue text ????? seriously ? PLEASE revert the dark theme to a sensible dark grey and normal text colours.

Seem to be fixed in the later version on Mac

They have added a "Mid" setting to themes but it only changes the background NOT the horrendous blue text or left aligned user box

Arf, was it reverted back ? I may be the only one but I definitely prefer the pure black bg with blue foreground version this was the first thing I genuinely noticed when trying latest version of Claude code desktop and I was up to spend less time on vscode for casual projects. But I can't handle this grayish lighter bg for long session, for me it's less readable and kind of trap my focus out... May be time to introduce a few themes we can switch ?

Blue color sucks for my text for Claude Code. It's as bad as the green color that texts have that Apple did specifically to discourage people from using other phones. I just want to be able to customize the colors and stuff myself, please.

We need to add transparency options to the themes. set bg color and transparency .