[FEATURE] no-ncurses cli interface

Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Sep 28, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
  • [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

The fundamental interface of claude is a prompt. I enter text, I watch the output, I wait for it to finish, I repeat. A repl. The default interface should be a readline prompt (or frankly not even that! we have rlwrap).

Instead, we have some complicated-yet-confusing interface that defies all expectations of how cli software should work. It's a confused sense of interaction. The claude cli interface seems to be trying to ape the desktop client while not providing any of the benefit of the terminal beyond access over ssh, nor any of the native usability of the gui. The fullscreen (as opposed to what?) interface doesn't even seem to allow copying, inexplicably—I wasn't even aware it was possible to mess this up.

Proposed Solution

So: please enable a dead-simple claude interface that works as other repls do, without any understanding of terminal window size, the mouse, or literally any keybindings at all aside from interception of interrupts.

Alternative Solutions

Give us a dead-simple library so we can implement usable tooling ourselves.

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

just basic use of your product. Here is the bottom six lines of the window of the existing interface:

```✻ Sautéed for 4s · done 8:43 PM

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
❯ draft the backup cronjob
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
⏵⏵ auto mode on (shift+tab to cycle) · ← for agents ✘ Auto-update failed: no write permission to npm prefix · Run claude doctor```

All of this should be replaced with > to produce a usable tool. It doesn't need live updating, or cute graphics, or literally anything but a response to what I type and a prompt symbol.

And for love of god, please take any functionality that uses a mouse and rip it out (or enable disabling it). If you are unwilling, at least provide instructions to disable this terminal functionality entirely so people can continue to get work done without interference from the claude program.

Thank you.

Additional Context

_No response_

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