Korean IME (한글 입력기): Ctrl+V paste does not work when Korean input mode is active

Summary

When macOS Korean IME is active in Claude Code's chat input, pressing Ctrl+V does not paste. The user must switch to English input mode first, then paste, then switch back to Korean. This is a significant friction point for Korean-speaking users who frequently type in Korean and need to paste content.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.142
• OS: macOS 26.4.1 (Build 25E253)
• IME: macOS built-in Korean input method (toggled via Caps Lock)
• Terminal: (standard macOS terminal)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Claude Code
2. Switch input mode to Korean (Caps Lock or language switcher)
3. Start typing in Korean in the chat input box
4. Copy any text to clipboard
5. Press Ctrl+V to paste

Expected Behavior

Clipboard content is pasted into the chat input, regardless of which IME/input mode is active.

Actual Behavior

Nothing is pasted. The paste action is silently ignored. The user must switch to English input mode before Ctrl+V works.

Diagnostics

To rule out the possibility that the Korean IME was transforming Ctrl+V into a different key sequence, we ran cat in a separate terminal and pressed Ctrl+V while in Korean mode:

^V

The terminal correctly receives ^V (ASCII 0x16) even when Korean IME is active. This means the OS/IME is passing the correct signal to the terminal — the issue is in how Claude Code's TUI handles ctrl+v when Korean IME composition mode is active.

What we tried

• Added "ctrl+ㅍ": "chat:imagePaste" to ~/.claude/keybindings.json — did not help (wrong assumption about key transformation)
• Added "ctrl+shift+v": "chat:imagePaste" to ~/.claude/keybindings.json — also did not work

Hypothesis

When Korean IME is active inside Claude Code's TUI input component, the component appears to be in "IME composition mode." In this state, ctrl+v is either:

• Routed through the IME composition pipeline instead of the normal key event handler, or
• Consumed/suppressed by the IME layer before reaching the chat:imagePaste binding

This is a known class of bug in TUI frameworks and terminal input libraries when dealing with CJK IME composition state. The fix likely requires explicitly handling paste events (or ctrl+v) outside of the IME composition flow.

Workaround

Currently none that works reliably. The user must manually switch to English mode before pasting.

Impact

This affects all Korean-speaking users who type in Korean and need to paste content — which is a very common workflow. Similar issues likely affect Japanese and Chinese IME users (any CJK input method that uses composition mode).

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Reported via Claude Code v2.1.142 on macOS 26.4.1