[BUG] AskUserQuestion preview pane truncates with 'N lines hidden' — no way to expand or scroll (still reproducible in 2.1.220)
Bug Description
When an AskUserQuestion option preview is longer than the space the dialog allocates, the preview pane collapses it with a ─── ✂ ─── N lines hidden ─── marker. There is no keybinding, scroll interaction, or setting to reveal the hidden lines while the dialog is open. If the deciding information (a comparison table, price bands, a code snippet) lives in the preview, the user cannot read it and has to reject the dialog and ask the assistant to re-print the options as plain text — defeating the purpose of the tool.
This was previously reported in #38674 (closed as stale, locked), and #33062 / #34508 / #58321 (closed as duplicates of it). Filing fresh per the auto-lock bot's instruction to open a new issue and reference the old ones. Still reproducible on the current version.
Environment
- Claude Code version: 2.1.220
- Platform: macOS (darwin 25.5.0), terminal TUI
- Terminal window: wide (~2000px), plenty of unused vertical space below the dialog
Steps to Reproduce
- Have Claude call
AskUserQuestionwhere one option'spreviewis ~10 lines (e.g. a small markdown table plus 2–3 explanation lines). - The dialog renders the preview pane with only the first line visible and
✂ 8 lines hidden. - Try arrow keys / ctrl+o / ctrl+e / resizing — the hidden lines are never revealed.
Expected Behavior
Any of:
- a keybinding to expand the focused option's preview (inline or fullscreen overlay),
- scrollability inside the preview pane, or
- the pane using the actually-available terminal height before truncating.
Actual Behavior
Preview is truncated with no way to reveal the content; screenshot attached in the first comment. Note the dialog collapsed 8 of ~10 preview lines while most of the terminal's vertical space was unused.
Impact
Users can't compare options whose substance is in the previews; the round-trip gets wasted (reject dialog → ask for plain-text dump → answer in free text). The Notes:/preview affordances are otherwise great — this is the one gap.
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3 Comments
Screenshot of the truncated preview pane (8 of ~10 lines hidden while most of the terminal's vertical space is unused):
<img width="2000" height="680" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/53364f2a-8a99-4690-a833-7567fe626413" />
Two notes that may help this one get picked up:
Claude Issue Triagerun for it (run 30393996033) failed withThe action has timed out, and the issue still carries no labels or assignee — so it likely never got routed to anyone.Happy to re-test on a newer build if that would help.
Thanks for the detailed report and the re-file. Confirmed / reproduced on 2.1.233 (macOS, tmux 160x30): asked Claude to call AskUserQuestion with a 10-line preview (a small markdown table plus three lines of text). The dialog showed the first 4 lines and
─── ✂ ─── 6 lines hidden ───, even though the dialog only used about half of the terminal's rows. Ctrl+O toggles the transcript view, arrow keys just move between options, and nothing reveals the hidden lines. In a 40-row terminal the same preview rendered in full.What's going on: the preview height budget is computed from a fixed, over-conservative estimate of how much space the rest of the dialog needs, so short terminals get almost no preview room (on ~27 rows or fewer, only one line), and there's no way to expand or scroll the pane. Both are real gaps — the budget should be based on the space actually available, and there should be a way to reveal a clipped preview. Leaving this open as a confirmed bug.
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