[FEATURE] Replace the decorative fillers with literal action labels matching the tool being invoked

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened May 22, 2026 by pmandes Closed Jun 22, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
  • [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Issue: Decorative status fillers hide what the model is actually doing

While a tool call is in flight, Claude Code displays decorative status labels like tomfoolering..., razzle-dazzling..., divining..., contemplating...
etc. instead of naming the actual action being performed.

This is actively harmful for debugging long-running or hanging operations:

  1. I cannot tell whether the model is waiting on a shell command (e.g. hdc shell hilog streaming for minutes), reading a large file, generating tokens,

or genuinely stuck.

  1. When a tool call takes unusually long, I have no way to judge whether to interrupt — the filler gives zero signal about what's happening.
  2. The labels are not amusing on the n-th encounter; they read as noise and degrade trust that the CLI is being straightforward about its state.

Proposed Solution

Requested change: replace the decorative fillers with literal action labels matching the tool being invoked, e.g. Running Bash: hdc shell ..., Reading
file: src/foo.ts, Searching code, Generating response. If a "fun" mode is desired, gate it behind an opt-in setting; the default should be informative.

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

_No response_

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