Visual regression: links indistinguishable from text, reduced font size, missing callout highlighting

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?

Summary

After a recent Claude Code update, the in-terminal chat rendering has degraded in three ways that hurt readability:

1. Links no longer visually distinct from regular text — both body text and hyperlinks render in the same blue color, so I can no longer tell at a glance what is clickable.
2. Reduced font size — text appears noticeably smaller than in the previous version, making longer responses hard to scan.
3. Missing colored callout blocks — custom formatted blocks (e.g. "Insight" sections framed with ───── separators) previously rendered with a green/highlighted background. Now they render as plain grey text, losing the visual separation from surrounding content.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26100)
• Shell: bash
• Claude Code: [fill in your version — run claude --version]
• Model: Opus 4.6

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a Claude Code session.
2. Ask Claude to produce a response that contains:

• A markdown link, e.g. [github](https://github.com)
• A formatted "Insight" block or any other visually distinct section.

1. Observe the rendered output in the terminal pane.

Expected behavior

• Hyperlinks render in a different color (or with underline) compared to body text, so they are visually identifiable as clickable.
• Font size matches the previous version — comfortable for scanning multi-paragraph responses.
• Callout/insight blocks keep their colored background highlighting, providing clear visual separation.

Actual behavior

• All text (links + body) appears in the same uniform blue shade — no way to distinguish clickable elements.
• Font is smaller than before the update.
• Insight/callout blocks render as flat text with no background color.

Screenshots

Before the update (previous rendering — Insight block visibly highlighted):
[attach screenshot 2]

After the update (current rendering — uniform blue, no highlight, smaller font):
[attach screenshot 1]

Impact

Daily usage becomes noticeably harder — I work in Claude Code for hours per day, and the loss of link distinction + smaller font + missing callout colors significantly reduces readability and slows me down when reviewing agent output.

What Should Happen?

I've tried checking /config for theme / font-size / contrast options but did not find settings that restore the previous rendering.

Currently I work around this by squinting at blue-on-blue text and manually hovering over items to check if they are clickable — this noticeably slows my workflow.

Other tools (VS Code, browser devtools) keep clear visual distinction between links and body text out of the box — Claude Code used to do the same before the recent update, so this is a regression rather than a missing feature.

Downgrading the CLI to the previous version would restore the rendering but would also lose other recent improvements, so it's not a viable long-term workaround

<img width="1919" height="1032" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1b365094-dc61-49f9-b3d2-d85684d292be" />

<img width="893" height="571" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/042e2ef1-a5ac-4868-a41a-53aea8beea31" />

<img width="941" height="997" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0c4c005d-c979-4555-baa3-dadc3b80f7f9" />

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Ensure Claude Code CLI is updated to the current version (1.2581.0).
2. Open Claude Code in a terminal (Warp in my case, but not Warp-specific).
3. Start any conversation and ask a prompt whose response will include:

• At least one markdown link, e.g. a URL reference
• A formatted "Insight" callout block (framed with ───── separators)

1. Observe the rendered output in the chat pane.

Observed: all text (links + body) renders in the same blue color → links are indistinguishable from regular text. Font is smaller than before the update. Callout blocks render as flat grey text with no background highlight.

Previously (before the recent CLI update, same terminal, same OS): links had a distinct color, font was larger, and callout blocks had a green/tinted background. Only the CLI version changed between working and broken states.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.2581.0 (f10398)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Warp

Additional Information

<img width="941" height="997" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3bcfa678-6314-45f4-b349-43b0742eb3be" />
<img width="1919" height="1032" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a24abe15-2556-4245-91f7-25b1faa31c82" />
<img width="893" height="571" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0411f857-9219-4fe2-bd95-a23b5590f3f2" />