[BUG] Desktop app: Code tab text-selection highlight has low contrast in dark mode (Chat tab does not have this issue)
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?
When dragging to select text in a response inside the Code tab (desktop app, dark mode), the highlight background is a low-contrast gray-blue that barely lifts the white foreground text off the black background. Selected text is hard to read. The Chat tab in the same app, same theme, renders selection as a saturated blue with clearly legible white text on top, no readability problem there.
Expected behavior
Text selection in the Code tab should use the same high-contrast selection color as the Chat tab, or at minimum a color with sufficient contrast against the dark background.
Actual behavior
Selection highlight in the Code tab is barely distinguishable from the unselected background. See attached screenshots.
Steps to reproduce
Open Claude Desktop, set appearance to Dark.
Open the Code tab, start or resume a session.
Click and drag across a line of Claude's response text to select it.
Compare against the Chat tab: repeat the same drag-select there.
Screenshots
Screenshot 1: Code tab, "token auth" selected, low contrast.
Screenshot 2: Chat tab, "bright contrast" selected, high contrast, for comparison.
Environment
Platform: Claude Desktop app, Code tab
OS: macOS [your version, e.g. Sequoia 15.x]
Claude Desktop version: [Claude menu > About Claude]
Appearance: Dark
Additional context
Related to two other open reports about low contrast in the desktop app's dark mode, though neither is about the selection highlight specifically: #53154 (pure black background causing eye strain) and #49056 (user message text rendering as dark blue on black). This report is specifically about the mouse-drag text-selection highlight, not the background or message text color.
<img width="344" height="41" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/164aab38-935a-4687-a006-0ef0819ff109" />
<img width="620" height="56" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a720d0e3-858a-4110-a3af-b601f01c504e" />
What Should Happen?
The highlighted text should look like it does in Claude Desktop Chat.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
- Set Claude Desktop to dark
- Go to the Code tab.
- Type any text and then select it and notice it's hard to see what you highlighted
Claude Model
Not sure / Multiple models
Is this a regression?
No, this never worked
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
Claude Desktop Version: 1.34493.1 (255293) 2026-08-21T02:05:20.000Z
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
macOS
Terminal/Shell
Terminal.app (macOS)
Additional Information
_No response_