[Bug] Ctrl+O verbose/transcript view freezes — new messages and agent responses don't render until toggled off

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Apr 25, 2026 by sebryu Closed Apr 29, 2026

Summary

In Claude Code v2.1.119 on macOS, after toggling verbose/transcript view with Ctrl+O, the view appears to freeze:

  • New user prompts and agent responses are not rendered while the transcript view is active.
  • The agent does receive and process new messages — they're just invisible until you toggle Ctrl+O off.
  • Toggling Ctrl+O off immediately reveals all the "missing" output.

This makes the verbose/transcript view effectively unusable for ongoing conversations: it looks frozen, but work is silently happening underneath.

Environment

  • Claude Code: 2.1.119
  • Model tested: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (launched with --model haiku)
  • macOS: 26.3.1 (build 25D771280a)
  • Node: v24.12.0
  • Shell: zsh
  • Terminal: reproduced inside tmux 3.6a (TERM=tmux-256color); originally observed in a regular macOS terminal as well

Reproduction steps

  1. Launch Claude Code: claude --model haiku in any directory.
  2. Send a message, e.g. say hi in one word. Confirm you get a response (Hi).
  3. Press Ctrl+O. The footer changes to:

Showing detailed transcript · ctrl+o to toggle · ↑↓ scroll · [ to print output · v to open in vi
Existing messages now show a timestamp + model annotation (e.g. 12:36 PM claude-haiku-4-5-20251001).

  1. Send a new message, e.g. count slowly from 1 to 5, one number per line.
  2. Wait for the agent to finish (Haiku responds in a few seconds).
  3. Observe the transcript view: neither the new prompt nor the agent's response appears.
  4. Press Ctrl+O again to exit transcript view.
  5. The previously missing prompt and response are now visible in normal history.

Expected behavior

While transcript / verbose view is active, new user prompts and agent responses (including streaming output) should render in real time, the same way they do in normal view — just with the additional verbose annotations (timestamps, model, etc.).

Actual behavior

The transcript view behaves like a static snapshot taken at the moment Ctrl+O was pressed. Anything that happens afterward is hidden until you toggle Ctrl+O off, at which point the new content suddenly appears.

Additional notes

  • Confirmed the agent is actually running while the view appears frozen — the response is fully present in history once Ctrl+O is toggled off.
  • The current input prompt also seems to swallow keystrokes for viewer navigation (↑↓, [, v) while in transcript view, which compounds the perception that the UI is unresponsive. (This may be intentional, but combined with the missing-render bug it makes verbose mode look completely dead.)
  • Possibly related but distinct issues: #46261 (Ctrl+E transcript toggle state mismatch on macOS), #40984 (Ctrl+O hides Claude questions), #48083 (Write tool diffs missing in verbose mode), #25980 (thinking blocks not shown in verbose).

Workaround

Toggle Ctrl+O off whenever you want to see new output, then optionally toggle back on to inspect it with verbose annotations.

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