Tool output nearly invisible in expanded "Ran N shell command" view under Light theme

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened May 21, 2026 by TomKalina Closed Jun 20, 2026

Description

When clicking to expand a collapsed Ran N shell command block in the transcript, the tool output text renders with extremely low contrast — appears as faint gray on the panel background, almost unreadable.

Switching theme from light to auto (or dark) restores normal contrast and the same output becomes fully legible. The issue is reproducible only with the light theme.

Likely cause: the foreground color used for inline tool output inside the expanded block is not adjusted per theme — probably a dim/faint ANSI mapping or a hard-coded dark gray that only has acceptable contrast against the dark theme background.

Repro

  1. /config → set theme to light
  2. Run any command that produces multi-line text output (e.g. git log --oneline -5)
  3. Wait for the assistant to collapse the call into Ran 1 shell command
  4. Click to expand the block
  5. Observe: command headers (bash(...)) and stdout lines are barely visible

Expected

Tool output should have the same readability contrast as regular assistant text in the active theme.

Workaround

Switch theme to auto or dark via /config.

Environment

  • Claude Code: 2.1.146
  • macOS: 26.4.1
  • Theme triggering bug: light

Attachment

Screenshot from real session — expanded Ran 1 shell command block; the green/red bullets are visible but the surrounding command/output text is washed out.

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