[FEATURE] Terminal (TUI): inline colored annotations + deferred batch reply to specific blocks of Claude's output (reviving #45904)
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing requests. This consolidates a cluster of closely related requests that were all auto-closed for inactivity or as duplicates — #45904 (canonical), #60891, #58336, #47906 — none rejected on the merits; the staleness bot on #45904 and #47906 explicitly invited reopening via a new issue. #55772 is the only one still open and is narrower (VSCode quote affordance).
- [x] This is a single feature request.
Problem Statement
Long Claude outputs (plans, multi-step explanations, code reviews, status tables) can't be reviewed point-by-point in the terminal. The single prompt input forces me to address everything at once: I approve ~80%, want to push back on a part, and ask a clarifying question about another — but I must cram it into one message, or describe blocks by content ("the 5/7 row"). My current workaround is to copy the whole response into OneNote, annotate it in red, then return to the CLI and reconcile by hand. That breaks the session flow and risks dropping some of the agent's own questions.
Proposed Solution
A terminal review/annotation mode:
- Navigate Claude's output blocks (keyboard j/k or arrows; reuse the existing Esc-Esc selection highlight).
- Attach a free-text note (question, objection, approval) to one or more specific blocks.
- Render notes in a configurable color — red by default, yellow as an alternative — to separate "what I wrote" from "what Claude said" at a glance.
- Deferred batch send: mark several blocks while reading, then submit all annotations as a single structured turn, each note anchored to its block, so Claude answers point-by-point without losing any.
Implementation options that fit a terminal: open the last response in $EDITOR with markable blocks, or a TUI overlay; annotations persisted alongside the transcript.
Alternative Solutions
- Auto-generated stable block references (
[R5],[L12]) the user can quote in the next prompt (lighter weight; from #60891). - A pure quote-reply affordance (parity with the quote feature #55772 says already exists on Claude.ai web and Claude Code on Windows) is a useful first step, but doesn't cover multi-block, colored, or deferred-batch annotation.
Priority
Medium - Would be very helpful
Feature Category
Interactive Mode (TUI)
Use Case Example
Reviewing a long plan: approve sections 1–3, attach a red "this assumes X, which is wrong" note to section 4, a yellow "clarify scope" note to section 6, then send all three at once — instead of one prompt that has to address everything.
Additional Context
Color is central, not cosmetic: it's what lets a reviewer distinguish their own annotations from the agent's text at a glance. This revives #45904 (canonical, closed only for inactivity) and adds two dimensions none of the prior requests emphasized: (a) colored annotations, and (b) deferred batch submission as a single review pass.
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