[BUG] Vim mode swallows Ctrl+V image paste (macOS) — works with editorMode "normal", fails in both INSERT and NORMAL

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

With "editorMode": "vim", pressing Ctrl+V at the prompt does not attach an image from the clipboard. Nothing happens: no [Image #N] chip, no error.

Setting "editorMode": "normal" and restarting makes Ctrl+V image paste work immediately, with no other change to the environment (same terminal, same tmux session, same clipboard contents, same version). So the vim-mode input path is the variable, not the clipboard or the terminal.

It fails in both vim sub-modes, INSERT and NORMAL.

This is plausibly a keybinding collision rather than a clipboard bug. In real vim, Ctrl+V is bound in both sub-modes: it starts visual-block in NORMAL and means "insert the next character literally" in INSERT. If Claude Code's vim mode claims Ctrl+V for either of those, it would shadow the image-paste handler before it ever runs.

What Should Happen?

Ctrl+V should attach the clipboard image regardless of editorMode, as it does with vim mode off. (Or, if Ctrl+V is deliberately reserved for vim semantics, the docs should say so and a documented alternative binding for image paste should exist under vim mode.)

Error Messages/Logs

None. The keypress is silently swallowed; nothing is logged and no error surfaces.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set "editorMode": "vim" in ~/.claude/settings.json and start claude.
2. Copy an image to the clipboard (e.g. Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+4 to screenshot a region to the clipboard).
3. At the prompt, in INSERT mode, press Ctrl+V.

• Expected: an [Image #1] chip appears.
• Actual: nothing happens.

1. Press Esc to go to NORMAL mode and press Ctrl+V again. Same result: nothing.
2. Quit, set "editorMode": "normal", restart claude, and press Ctrl+V with the same image still on the clipboard. The image attaches as expected.

Claude Model

Opus 4.8

Is this a regression?

Unknown. I have not used image paste under vim mode on an earlier version, so I cannot say whether it ever worked.

Claude Code Version

2.1.205

Platform

macOS

Operating System

macOS 26.3.1

Terminal/Shell

tmux 3.6a (TERM=screen-256color), zsh

Additional Information

Not a duplicate of the existing image-paste reports, which differ on the decisive variable:

• #74424 (Linux/Wayland) is about Alt+V, the dedicated image key on that platform, and explicitly states Ctrl+V text paste is unaffected. It's a version regression, and vim mode is only speculated as a contributing factor.
• #64068 (macOS) is Ctrl+V paste dying mid-session, with no vim-mode involvement.
• #8324, #72481, #59734 (Linux), #61609 (WSL2), #66119 / #68021 (Windows) are all clipboard-plumbing bugs — xclip vs wl-paste, missing platform support — on platforms other than macOS.

Here the clipboard is demonstrably readable by Claude Code on the very same machine and session; only editorMode decides whether Ctrl+V is honoured. None of the fourteen open vim-mode issues mentions image paste.