[BUG] Random Words and Red Asterisks Animations Break My Ability to Focus

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?

Random Words and Red Asterisks Animations Break My Ability to Focus.
I cannot handle constantly flashing words and red animated asterisks.
I have asked Claude to turn it off and he claims there is no setting to do so.
He says asking you is the only hope.
Please, this is a completely unusable interface to Claude AI for me when these horrible features are on.

What Should Happen?

There should be no random words or changing red asterisks.
There could be an icon or red dot or something that is not animated to indicate thinking.
I should hope that would be in everyone's best interests to be the default behavior.
However, at the very least, there should be a setting for those of us who have things to do with our minds while we work other than being dazzled by useless animations.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Any thinking of Claude leads to this behavior in the VsCode Claude Code Extension.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.246

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

Please help 🥺