[Feature Request] MCP tool rendering API to control request panel collapse state

Status Open
Reported on v2.1.266
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 1 comment · opened Sep 9, 2026

Bug Description
Title: No way for an MCP server to hint how its tool-call card is rendered (request panel always expanded)

Type: missing capability · Area: MCP tool rendering

What happens. In the Claude Desktop, an MCP tool card renders its full Request argument JSON expanded by default, while Bash cards collapse to a one-line Ran a command › row. Array-valued inputs render one
element per line, so a call with a 5-element parameters array plus extraArgs occupies ~14 lines of transcript.

The server operator has no lever. Grepping the shipped bundle (webview/index.js, extension.js) for every MCP tool-annotation field — readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, openWorldHint, idempotentHint,
annotations — returns zero hits, so no server-supplied metadata reaches the renderer at all.

What's missing. A server-side or per-connector way to say "render this tool's calls compactly / collapsed by default," so the choice applies to everyone using the connector instead of each user configuring
their own client.

Repro. Connect a remote MCP server exposing a tool with an array-typed input. Invoke it. The card shows the full argument JSON expanded, one element per line, with no server- or connector-level control.

Evidence. Extension anthropic.claude-code-2.1.266-win32-x64, Windows 11. The only workaround is claudeCode.focusView, declared "scope": "application" — user-level only, so it can't be scoped to one
connector, and it hides all tool activity rather than verbose MCP inputs specifically.

Environment Info

  • Platform: win32
  • Terminal: windows-terminal
  • Version: 2.1.266
  • Feedback ID: 1bebcbf5-2ee2-4544-a553-13cbbfb6cb18

Errors

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