[FEATURE] Disable or Customize User Input Background Highlighting

[skyboss1]

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

Problem Claude Code applies a white background highlight to user input in the terminal, which makes text unreadable for users with bright-colored terminal themes (e.g., bright green text on black background).

Current Behavior

• User messages are displayed with a white/light background highlight
• This highlighting cannot be disabled or customized through:
  • Output styles (only affects response formatting, not UI rendering)
  • ~/.claude/settings.json
  • Environment variables
  • Command-line flags

Proposed Solution

Requested Solution

Add configuration options to control user input highlighting:

Option 1: Disable highlighting entirely

{
  "ui": {
    "highlightUserInput": false
  }
}

Option 2: Customizable highlight colors
{
  "ui": {
    "userInputBackground": "none",
    "userInputBorder": "blue"
  }
}

Use Case

Users with custom terminal themes (bright colors, high contrast, accessibility themes) need readable text. Current white background makes green/yellow/cyan text completely unreadable.




### Alternative Solutions


Workarounds Attempted

- Created custom output style - doesn't affect UI rendering
- Checked settings.json - no relevant options
- Reviewed documentation - no color customization available


### Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

### Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

### Use Case Example

_No response_

### Additional Context

_No response_

[zippy72]

I'm having the same issue, but (ironically) in dark mode. Seems to be light grey on white and no way to change that, so there's no way to read back my previous prompts without copy/pasting them somewhere else.

[reciprocal-space]

I'm having the same issue, but (ironically) in dark mode. Seems to be light grey on white and no way to change that, so there's no way to read back my previous prompts without copy/pasting them somewhere else.

+1

[naltatis]

Same here in all my iTerm light mode themes. My workaround is to set "Minimum Contrast: 50".

[OssBozier]

I'll add my support to this idea. I also would like to be able to customize the user input text to be more obvious.

[github-actions[bot]]

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