claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Classic TUI renderer scrolls to bottom on focus regain (no setting to disable) [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

When using Claude Code's classic (default) terminal renderer, scrolling up to read earlier output and then clicking away from and back to the terminal window snaps the view back to the bottom of the output. The user has to scroll up again to find their place. This makes it hard to reference earlier context while working in another window.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run claude in a terminal (classic / default TUI mode).
2. After Claude has produced enough output to fill more than one screenful, scroll up using the terminal scrollback so earlier output is visible.
3. Click on another window to move focus away from the terminal.
4. Click back on the terminal.

Expected

Scroll position is preserved — the view stays where the user left it.

Actual

The view jumps to the bottom of the output. The user must scroll back up to where they were reading.

Workaround attempted

Setting "autoScrollEnabled": false in ~/.claude/settings.json had no effect. Per the schema description ("Auto-scroll the conversation view to bottom (fullscreen mode only)"), that setting only applies to the fullscreen renderer. There appears to be no equivalent setting for the classic renderer.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.138
• OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
• Terminal emulator: xfce4-terminal
• TERM: xterm-256color, COLORTERM: truecolor
• TUI mode: classic / default (not fullscreen)

Note

The behaviour does not occur with other CLI applications in the same terminal emulator, so it appears to originate in Claude Code's classic renderer rather than the terminal.

Suggested fix

Either honour autoScrollEnabled: false in the classic renderer too, or add a separate setting (e.g. preserveScrollOnFocus) so users on the classic renderer have a way to opt out of the snap-to-bottom.