Bug: in /tui fullscreen + /focus, final assistant text dims when the turn ends with an AskUserQuestion (should stay bright)

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened May 22, 2026 by 0xnfrith Closed Jun 21, 2026

Summary

When using /tui fullscreen followed by /focus, the final assistant message of a turn is normally rendered at full brightness — that's the entire point of focus mode, which is documented as "the user only sees the final text message in each response".

But when that same final assistant message ends with an AskUserQuestion picker, the text portion of the message dims to the intermediate / hidden styling. Only the AskUserQuestion picker widget below it renders at full brightness.

This is the exact case where the text most needs to be readable, because the user must read the preceding context to answer the question.

Repro

  1. Start a Claude Code session.
  2. Run /tui fullscreen.
  3. Run /focus.
  4. Send a prompt that prompts Claude to ask a clarifying question via AskUserQuestion.
  5. Observe the final assistant turn:
  • The prose Claude wrote (restating the problem, giving context for the question, etc.) is rendered dim / greyed.
  • The AskUserQuestion picker below it is rendered bright / normal.

Compare against a final assistant turn that is only text (no AskUserQuestion) in the same focus mode — that text renders bright, as expected.

Screenshots

Broken case — final assistant message ends with AskUserQuestion. The prose ("Let me restate to make sure I have it right before posting…" through "Do I have it right? And before I write the issue…") is greyed; only the "Issue shape" picker is bright:

!broken: final-message text dimmed when followed by AskUserQuestion

Normal case — a plain text-only final assistant message ("result: filed fourth feature request as …") in the same session, same focus mode. Renders bright, as expected:

!normal: plain final-message text renders bright

Expected

In focus mode, the text content of the final assistant message in a turn that ends with an AskUserQuestion should render at the same brightness as the normal-case screenshot above. The picker widget below it should render as usual.

Actual

The text content dims to the intermediate / collapsed-history styling, while only the picker renders bright. This inverts the visual hierarchy: the part the user is supposed to read is the dimmest content on screen, and the interactive widget — which depends on that text for context — is the brightest.

Why this matters

Focus mode is meant to be the high-signal reading mode. The whole point is "only the final message survives the dim treatment, everything else gets backgrounded so you can read clearly." Letting a single AskUserQuestion at the end of a turn drag the preceding text into the dim tier breaks that invariant exactly when the user needs the text to be readable to make a decision.

Fix shape (suggested)

Treat the final assistant message — including any text preceding an AskUserQuestion call inside that same final turn — as the "final message" for focus-mode brightening, not just the text-only case. The AskUserQuestion widget should not pull its surrounding text into the dim tier.

Thanks!

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