Allow hiding/customizing the "Thinking" label during extended thinking

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/34469
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/33191
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/29916

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These are not duplicates.

The duplicates talk about the normal spinnerVerbs which are configurable. But since a couple of days Claude Code also shows a 'Thinking' notice with a different set of verbs. Seems to have appeared somewhere after v2.1.104. I'm now using v2.1.110 which shows these 'extended thinking' verbs like:

Hmm
This one needs a moment
Working through it
Untangling some thoughts
Weighing a few approaches
Consulting the rubber duck
Cross-referencing seventeen theories
Double-checking the double-checks
Almost there
Pacing in small circles
Reticulating splines
Staring thoughtfully into the middle distance
Still here, still at it

These seem to come up in a fixed order to indicate that something is happening, but I find them very distracting and not very useful. Looks like they are triggered by a simple timeout in the TUI, not by interaction with the Anthropic servers. So this spinner is no extra indication that something is actually happening.

Would be great if these could be disabled. Less distraction = more better 😉

Might be possible to integrate this with 'spinnerVerbs', if they are replaced by one verb then also skip these 'extended thinking' verbs.

Users keep asking to delete ridiculous, distracting messages from the UI, but the Claude developers do not give up and keep adding them. Such unsinkable willpower. 💪💪💪 I am curious: what is the need for them to be smarter on this topic? Should they find a saboteur who keeps adding this "feature"? Or do they need to achieve AGI? Or is it just another dozen user requests (although, I have doubts anyone in Anthropic reads this issue tracker)?

Please remove or make the whimsical status messages in Claude Code configurable.

I use Claude Code as a serious professional tool and treat the model as a skilled expert developer. Messages like "Consulting the rubber duck" completely break that dynamic — they feel jarring and undermine the professional tone of the interaction.

I understand that some users may enjoy this kind of humor, but others do not. A simple setting to disable these messages and display neutral status text instead would go a long way. Serious tools deserve serious defaults.

In 2.1.116 , silly phrases (like "Consulting the rubber duck") were replaced with "still thinking", "thinking more", "almost done thinking".

In my opinion, "almost done thinking" is a low-quality imitation of a progress bar, but this is definitely better than the random silly phrases.

@vcc-LG You may want to close this issue or update the description.

I would love to have a config to disable almost done thinking ...-style messages, especially given they appear in bright colors, distracting from much more important things. I don't need to know that CC is thinking, I know it does, and I know it will finish at some point. I understand that new CC users may not know that, so keeping this feature "on" by default is acceptable, but not being able to turn it "off" for the rest of us - is not. Would be nice if CC team adopted a new rule - all UI-related features are introduced with a flag to disable them. That would reduce the number of these GH issues considerably.

The only one I really want to get rid of is "almost done thinking", simply because it's often not true, I have been staring at this message for 2 minutes thinking that it meant claude would soon be done thinking. Time I could have spent better doing other things