Issue Station
Sign In
Tools hereToolbox

claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Feature request: expose `/plugin`-style modal TUI API for user plugins [1 participants]

Official PRs (…)
ON THIS PAGE

Recommended Tools

×6

Utilities matched from this issue’s tags and category — try them while you read without losing context.

GitHub issue graph ai analysis

Paste a GitHub issue URL. We fetch that issue, discover linked issues from bodies/comments/timeline, collect linked pull requests, and produce a structured English report.

The report is written in English Markdown for sharing and archival.

Helpful · Quick feedback

Loading…
GitHub stats
anthropics/claude-code#47984•Fetched 2026-04-15 06:36:42
View on GitHub
Comments
0
Participants
1
Timeline
3
Reactions
0
Author
babamba2babamba2
Participants
babamba2babamba2
Timeline (top)
labeled ×3

Fix Action

Fix / Workaround

Workarounds today

RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

Problem

Built-in slash commands like /plugin, /mcp, and /config render Ink-based modal overlays that:

  • open over the current session,
  • let the user edit settings without consuming chat turns,
  • dismiss with esc and return to exactly where the conversation left off.

User-defined plugins and skills cannot replicate this experience. Their only output surface is "write markdown into the conversation", which:

  • consumes chat turns (and therefore tokens),
  • disrupts whatever long-running task the user was in the middle of,
  • cannot restore the prior UI state when closed.

Use case

I maintain sc4sap, a Claude Code plugin for SAP ABAP development. It has a /sc4sap:sap-option skill that lets users inspect the currently-connected SAP system, edit their .sc4sap/sap.env credentials, and flip the row-extraction blocklist profile. Users naturally expect it to behave like /plugin: open a modal, change a setting, close it. Today I can offer either:

  1. In-conversation flow — interrupts work, burns context, can't be dismissed cleanly.
  2. Separate-terminal TUI — I ship a zero-dep CLI (node scripts/sap-option-tui.mjs) that users run in another terminal. Works, but ergonomically worse than /plugin.

Several other plugin authors have surfaced variants of this request in discussions.

Ask

Please consider exposing a stable extension point for plugins to:

  1. register a slash-command (or annotate an existing skill) that opens a modal overlay instead of writing to the conversation,
  2. receive keyboard events (esc, arrow keys, enter) while the modal is active,
  3. return control to the conversation state without leaving residue in the transcript.

A minimal shape might be a plugin-declared component (similar to how statusLine is declared today in plugin.json) plus a small React/Ink bridge, or a lower-level "raw terminal region" API that plugin authors render into themselves.

Workarounds today

  • Multi-line statusLine handles read-only status, but can't accept input.
  • Separate-terminal TUI works for editing but requires users to open another window.
  • Hooks can respond to tool calls but can't draw UI.

Environment

  • Claude Code (desktop + CLI)
  • Plugin author hitting this regularly

extent analysis

TL;DR

Exposing a stable extension point for plugins to register slash-commands that open modal overlays could resolve the issue.

Guidance

  • Investigate the feasibility of introducing a plugin-declared component, similar to statusLine, to handle modal overlays for user-defined plugins and skills.
  • Consider implementing a React/Ink bridge to facilitate communication between plugins and the modal overlay.
  • Explore the possibility of a lower-level "raw terminal region" API that allows plugin authors to render their own UI components.
  • Evaluate the potential of utilizing existing hooks to respond to tool calls and draw UI, potentially in conjunction with other solutions.

Example

No code example is provided due to the lack of specific technical details in the issue.

Notes

The solution may require significant changes to the existing architecture and API, and may involve trade-offs between functionality, usability, and complexity.

Recommendation

Apply a workaround, such as using a separate-terminal TUI or multi-line statusLine, until a stable extension point is exposed for plugins to register slash-commands that open modal overlays. This is because the current workarounds, although imperfect, can provide some functionality while a more comprehensive solution is developed.

Vote matrix · Quick signals

Works
Did the solution work? Tap to confirm.
Easy Fix
Was it a quick fix?
Time Saver
Did it save you time?
Blocking
Was it severely blocking?
Common Issue
Are others likely hitting this too?
Flaky / Intermittent
Is it intermittent?
Verified / Reproducible
Can you reproduce it reliably?
Loading…
#api#latency issue#model loading#dependency error#configuration error

Still need to ship something?

×6

Another batch ranked right after the header list — different links, same matching logic.

Back to top recommendations

TRENDING