TUI conversation panel disappears as soon as external editor launches; not redrawn on return

Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened Apr 26, 2026 by getelson-at-mellanox Closed May 6, 2026

When the external editor is invoked from Claude Code, the conversation panel above the input box is cleared immediately at editor launch and remains blank after the editor exits. Only the input box renders on return. The conversation data itself is preserved — Ctrl+R searches it, /exit + resume restores the panel, and Ctrl+L forces a full redraw and is a clean workaround. So this is a redraw bug, not data loss.

Repro

  1. Start a session with multi-turn history visible above the input box.
  2. Invoke the external editor — the conversation panel disappears immediately.
  3. Save and quit the editor.
  4. On return: history above the input box is still blank; only the input box renders.
  5. Press Ctrl+L → full conversation redraws correctly.

Expected

Conversation panel remains drawn during editor invocation and after the external editor returns.

Environment

  • Claude Code 2.1.119
  • Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, kernel 7.0.0-14-generic
  • Konsole 25.12.03 (KDE)
  • TERM=xterm-256color, COLORTERM=truecolor
  • Reproduces with both vim (terminal-based, alt-screen editor) and kwrite --tempfile (GUI window editor) — so the issue is not editor-specific.
  • $EDITOR=vim, $VISUAL=kwrite --tempfile
  • Also reproduces under both tui: fullscreen (default) and tui: default.

Workaround

Press Ctrl+L after the editor exits.

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