[FEATURE] Setting to keep blank lines between items of a loose markdown list in the terminal UI

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

_Edited after filing: this is better read as a feature request for an opt-in setting than as a bug. Related, not duplicates: #82033 (closed as stale, asked for blank lines between list items) and #93686 (open, desktop line-spacing setting)._

What's Wrong?

When a reply separates list items with blank lines (a "loose" list in CommonMark/GFM), the terminal UI renders a tight list, nested loose lists included.

This is a rendering choice, not a spec violation. The spec defines loose versus tight as structure (whether item contents are wrapped in paragraphs), not as visual spacing.

The effect is that vertical space cannot be used to separate the items of a long reply. Readers who scan replies block by block lose that structure.

I understand that density saves terminal rows, and that stray blank lines from the model would otherwise double-space lists.

What Should Happen?

An opt-in setting, with the default unchanged, that renders a loose list with one blank line between its items.

Collapsing a run of blank lines to one is spec-correct, and changing it is not requested here.

Error Messages/Logs

None. This is a rendering behaviour.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Get a response whose markdown source has this shape. It was observed with real replies of this shape; the source text in the session transcript carried a blank line between every item:

- First:

  - one

  - two

- Second

1. Look at the rendered reply in the terminal.

1. Observed: one and two sit on consecutive lines, and - Second follows two directly.

Expected, with the setting on: a blank line between every item the source separates.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.286 (Claude Code)

Platform

Other: Claude subscription login (first-party)

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other: tmux inside an editor's integrated terminal

Additional Information

Workaround in use: write each item as its own paragraph starting with a literal •. The spacing then survives, but list semantics are lost.

Also sent through /feedback, receipt 3589ca67-b222-4acb-9f07-88cf73c774dc.