[BUG] Inline $...$ LaTeX does not render in Claude Code desktop tab (macOS/Windows) — display $$...$$ works
Summary
Inline LaTeX with single-dollar delimiters ($…$) does not render in the Claude Code tab of the Claude desktop app — it shows as literal text — while display math ($$…$$) renders correctly.
This is a fresh report of a still-reproducing bug previously tracked in #36742 and #36576, both of which were auto-closed as not planned by the stale-bot (#36576 is now locked). Per the bot's own instruction to "file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant," here it is.
Steps to reproduce
- Open the Claude desktop app → Claude Code tab
- Have Claude output inline math, e.g.
the value $n = 3$ satisfies the constraint - For contrast, have it output display math on its own line, e.g.
$$n = 3$$
Expected
Inline $…$ renders as formatted math, consistent with how display $$…$$ renders.
Actual
$$…$$and\[…\](display math) → render correctly ✅$…$and\(…\)(inline math) → show as literal text ❌
Environment
- Claude desktop app → Claude Code tab
- macOS (Darwin 25.5); also reported on Windows in #36742
- claude-code
2.1.165; bundledapp.asarrebuilt 2026-06-05 - Reproduces on the current build as of 2026-06-06
Where the bug lives (desktop renderer, not the CLI)
The Claude Code tab renders the CLI's --output-format stream-json output inside the desktop app's Chromium webview — the CLI only emits markdown, so this is purely a desktop-renderer issue (as the original reporter noted in #36742).
Inspecting the shipped app.asar: there is no KaTeX / MathJax / temml bundled, and display math appears to be emitted as native MathML (Chromium-rendered). The "block renders, inline doesn't" split is the classic signature of the markdown→math pass having inline single-$ math disabled while block math is enabled — e.g. remark-math configured with singleDollarTextMath: false, or the inline single-$ rule simply not wired into the renderer.
Suggested fix
Enable inline math in the renderer's markdown-math configuration:
- If using
remark-math: ensuresingleDollarTextMath: true(it istrueby default, so something is overriding it), or - register the inline single-
$delimiter rule alongside the existing block$$rule.
Apply the standard remark-math/GitHub heuristic so prose dollar amounts (e.g. "it costs $5 and $10 total") aren't mis-parsed as math — that guard is what makes single-$ inline math safe to enable.
References
- #36742 — this exact bug (closed
not planned/stale; 9 👍, 10 comments) - #36576 — duplicate, was triaged
bug/area:desktop/platform:macosbefore being auto-closed and locked
Showing cached comments. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗
12 Comments
this was fixed in a previous release and then re-broken
Related: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/65632. Upvote (👍 ) opening post there so it doesn't get auto-closed.
Cross-device data point posted in https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/65632#issuecomment-4668337832: the same messages render inline
$...$math fine on the iPad/iPhone apps while the macOS desktop app shows raw source (display$$...$$renders on all of them) — supporting the desktop-renderer localization argued here.Been two weeks and no response and no fix.
It's super frustrating that this is still an issue. The usability has plummeted for me. I can't do any mathematical analysis on the code I'm working with and I'm just burning tokens telling Claude to write the output to a markdown file and having to micromanage what it's trying to stuff in there.
This really hurts my math analysis workflow on Claude Code. Hope it gets fixed soon.
For the people commenting: Don't forget to upvote the opening post (👍 ), that's what they use to rank and prioritize issues.
upvote #65632 as well. this still ongoing and terribly irritating, especially when Claude Code tries to render it, even without being told to, and fails to do so... can't do any math or statistics related tasks on my projects
@claude please fix, math enthusiast really needs this
Still reproducing as of today. Adding a fresh confirmation to keep this from going stale again.
Environment
Behavior (unchanged from the report)
$...$renders as literal text, e.g.$E = mc^2$and$\varphi = \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$show the raw dollar-delimited source instead of math.$$...$$renders correctly (a Gaussian integral$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2}\,dx = \sqrt{\pi}$$shows as proper KaTeX output).So the KaTeX pipeline is clearly present and working for display math — only the single-dollar inline delimiter is not being picked up by the markdown parser. This looks like a missing/disabled inline-math rule (
$...$) rather than a KaTeX problem.This has now been open across #36742, #36576, #50569 and here for months. Please prioritize — it makes any technical/math discussion in the desktop Claude Code tab hard to read. Happy to provide more detail if useful.
Hey, note that all issues you've mentioned are old and we're actually fixed.
this time it's a regression, inline math used to work inside the Desktop Claude Code for couple of months before it stopped working again.
relevant recent issues include the one we're currently on. you go mine #65632 and you have #66467.
mine and @xiao-yan issues currently rank second and third on the most upvoted bugs for desktop.
comment and upvote all 3.
Bug is confirmed on Linux as well.
claude-desktop)$...$) renders as literal text with dollar signs, while display math ($$...$$) renders correctly as typeset equations.Same symptom as reported here for macOS/Windows — not platform-specific.