[BUG] macOS: documented per-prompt dismissals for the `workflow` keyword trigger (alt+w, backspace) don't work

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Summary

On macOS, both documented ways to dismiss the dynamic-workflow keyword trigger for a single prompt fail. The docs (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/workflows, "Ask for a workflow in your prompt") say:

If Claude Code highlights the word when you didn't mean to trigger one, press alt+w to ignore it for this prompt, or press backspace while the cursor is right after the highlighted word.

Neither works on macOS, and on a pre-2.1.157 build there is no workflowKeywordTriggerEnabled setting yet either. So anyone who routinely writes about GitHub Actions workflows (or Airflow / Temporal / n8n / plain business workflows) trips the trigger constantly with no proportionate way out.

Environment

• Claude Code Desktop (com.anthropic.claudefordesktop), embedded engine 2.1.149 (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-vm/.sdk-version). Desktop "Check for Updates" reports installed version as current, so 2.1.157 is not yet on this channel.
• Standalone CLI 2.1.140 also installed (~/.local/share/claude/versions/).
• macOS (Darwin 25.5.0), US keyboard layout.

Impact

The Desktop approval card (with its token-usage caution and Deny action) prevents an accidental trigger from silently consuming tokens in interactive use, and the keyword only permits a workflow rather than forcing one. The gap is that the trigger shipped ahead of its suppression controls: per-prompt dismissals are broken on macOS (above), and the workflowKeywordTriggerEnabled off-switch (2.1.157) is not on the Desktop "latest" channel yet, leaving only the sledgehammer disableWorkflows (which also removes /deep-research and the ultracode effort level). The one surface with no approval gate at all is bypass-permissions / claude -p / Agent SDK, where an accidental keyword trigger would start a workflow unprompted -- so the missing dismissals/off-switch matter most there.

Design bug (beyond the keybinding)

Even granting the trigger is intended, the affordance is the defect.

1. The highlight's meaning is undiscoverable in-context: hovering and right-clicking the glowing word surface no tooltip, menu, or opt-out -- the user must leave the app and read docs to learn what it does.
2. It keys off the bare word "workflow," which has a common plain-English/technical meaning (GitHub Actions workflows, Airflow / Temporal / n8n, business workflows), so false positives hit whole categories of users.
3. With per-prompt dismissals broken on macOS and no workflowKeywordTriggerEnabled on the current Desktop channel, there is no low-friction "I just meant the word."

Net effect: confusion plus induced cost -- support-load and exploratory token spend in interactive use (this report itself is an example: a one-line config-file fix turned into a multi-topic session chasing an unexplained highlight), and genuine unprompted-workflow risk in bypass-permissions / claude -p / Agent SDK modes.

Related

• #63784 (settings docs missing the Workflow keyword trigger toggle added in 2.1.157) is adjacent but distinct; this report is about the keybinding/UX dismissals being broken on macOS, independent of the settings docs.

What Should Happen?

Any of the following would have been better:

• Bind the per-prompt dismissal to a chord that survives macOS Option-compose, and document the Mac-correct key.
• Make Backspace-adjacent actually dismiss the trigger rather than delete a character.
• Add a hover/tooltip explaining the highlight, with an inline "don't treat this as a trigger" / "turn it off" affordance.
• Gate the trigger behind more explicit phrasing than a single common word.
• Accelerate the workflowKeywordTriggerEnabled rollout to the latest/stable channels so there is a proportionate off-switch.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. In the Desktop input box, type a sentence containing the word workflow. It highlights (glows blue).
2. Press alt+w. On a Mac, Alt = Option (⌥), and ⌥W is consumed by macOS as a compose/dead key -> it inserts the character ∑ (US layout) instead of firing the ignore-trigger shortcut. The trigger is not dismissed.
3. Alternatively, place the cursor immediately after the highlighted word and press Backspace. This does delete the trigger, but it also deletes the last character (workflow -> workflo).

Expected behavior

A documented per-prompt dismissal that works on macOS and allows the user to type the common word "workflow" without triggering any unintended side-effects.

Observed behavior

• alt+w (⌥W) produces ∑ and does not dismiss.
• Backspace deletes a character.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.9659.2

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_