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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Feature] Add a user-facing toggle for spinner verbs / tool-use summaries in Claude Desktop

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Claude Desktop currently sets CLAUDE_CODE_EMIT_TOOL_USE_SUMMARIES=false on every spawned claude-code process (via the feature flag 3792010343 in the Electron bundle), which suppresses spinner verbs and inline tool-use summaries entirely. The standalone CLI does not receive this flag and behaves normally.

There is currently no documented setting in ~/.claude/settings.json, the Claude Desktop preferences UI, or any environment variable a user can set that overrides this suppression. Several attempted workarounds (setting the env var in settings.json, wrapping the bundled binary, modifying app.asar) have been verified to be either ignored or blocked by Electron security fuses on macOS (EnableEmbeddedAsarIntegrityValidation, OnlyLoadAppFromAsar, EnableNodeOptionsEnvironmentVariable, EnableNodeCliInspectArguments, RunAsNode all locked down).

Prior reports closed without resolution:

  • #51534 (closed stale → duplicate)
  • #53447 (closed as duplicate of #51534)

Root Cause

  • The spinnerVerbs setting is documented and many users have invested time curating custom verb lists. Today those lists silently no-op in Desktop with no indication why.
  • Behavior inconsistency between CLI and Desktop on the same machine is surprising and hard to debug — the suppression isn't surfaced anywhere in product, settings, or release notes.
  • A toggle is much lighter-weight than reversing the default — anyone who prefers the cleaner Desktop UI today keeps it; anyone who wants the verbs back can opt in.

Happy to test any preview build.

Fix Action

Fix / Workaround

There is currently no documented setting in ~/.claude/settings.json, the Claude Desktop preferences UI, or any environment variable a user can set that overrides this suppression. Several attempted workarounds (setting the env var in settings.json, wrapping the bundled binary, modifying app.asar) have been verified to be either ignored or blocked by Electron security fuses on macOS (EnableEmbeddedAsarIntegrityValidation, OnlyLoadAppFromAsar, EnableNodeOptionsEnvironmentVariable, EnableNodeCliInspectArguments, RunAsNode all locked down).

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Summary

Claude Desktop currently sets CLAUDE_CODE_EMIT_TOOL_USE_SUMMARIES=false on every spawned claude-code process (via the feature flag 3792010343 in the Electron bundle), which suppresses spinner verbs and inline tool-use summaries entirely. The standalone CLI does not receive this flag and behaves normally.

There is currently no documented setting in ~/.claude/settings.json, the Claude Desktop preferences UI, or any environment variable a user can set that overrides this suppression. Several attempted workarounds (setting the env var in settings.json, wrapping the bundled binary, modifying app.asar) have been verified to be either ignored or blocked by Electron security fuses on macOS (EnableEmbeddedAsarIntegrityValidation, OnlyLoadAppFromAsar, EnableNodeOptionsEnvironmentVariable, EnableNodeCliInspectArguments, RunAsNode all locked down).

Prior reports closed without resolution:

  • #51534 (closed stale → duplicate)
  • #53447 (closed as duplicate of #51534)

Request

Please add one of the following, whichever fits your direction:

  1. A documented preference in Claude Desktop's Settings UI: Display spinner verbs and tool-use summaries: On / Off
  2. A respected setting in ~/.claude/settings.json, e.g. "emitToolUseSummaries": true, that takes precedence over the Desktop-injected default
  3. A respected environment variable users can set in their shell profile (the existing CLAUDE_CODE_EMIT_TOOL_USE_SUMMARIES, if just made user-overridable)

Why this matters

  • The spinnerVerbs setting is documented and many users have invested time curating custom verb lists. Today those lists silently no-op in Desktop with no indication why.
  • Behavior inconsistency between CLI and Desktop on the same machine is surprising and hard to debug — the suppression isn't surfaced anywhere in product, settings, or release notes.
  • A toggle is much lighter-weight than reversing the default — anyone who prefers the cleaner Desktop UI today keeps it; anyone who wants the verbs back can opt in.

Happy to test any preview build.

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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Feature] Add a user-facing toggle for spinner verbs / tool-use summaries in Claude Desktop