[BUG] TUI status bar and spinner stack lines instead of redrawing in place

Summary

When running command-code in the terminal, the TUI status bar ("Thinking..." spinner / live progress indicator) fails to redraw on a single line. Instead of using ANSI cursor movement to overwrite the previous output, each frame and status update is printed as a brand-new line, resulting in massive line-stacking and terminal log spam.

✻ Thinking… (25 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (27 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (27 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (27 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (27 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (27 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (27 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (29 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (31 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thinking… (33 lines) [ctrl+o to expand]

✻ Thought for 7 seconds [ctrl+o to expand]

⠶ That

⠶ That's the TUI's

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("H

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint

⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line.
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control;
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control; when that's
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control; when that's unavailable, the
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control; when that's unavailable, the renderer falls back
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control; when that's unavailable, the renderer falls back to newline output and
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control; when that's unavailable, the renderer falls back to newline output and you get exactly
⠶ That's the TUI's status bar ("Honing…" spinner) and the live thinking indicator failing to redraw in place — instead of the terminal cursor moving back to overwrite the same line, each repaint is emitted
as a brand-new line. The redraw logic relies on ANSI cursor control; when that's unavailable, the renderer falls back to newline output and you get exactly this stacking.

○ Visualizing… esc to interrupt • 1m 12s • ↓ 11.7k
The usual culprits,

The usual culprits, in order of likelihood:

1. **`

2. TERM is mis

3. TERM is misreported

4. TERM is misreported. If it

5. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb,

6. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset,

7. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as uns

8. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported

9. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm

10. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-

11. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and

12. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

13. stdout isn't a real

14. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

15. stdout isn't a real TTY. If

16. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

17. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is

18. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

19. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, `

20. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

21. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a p

22. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

23. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures

24. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

25. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, red

26. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

27. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to new

28. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

29. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing

30. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

31. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

32. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

33. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

34. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

35. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

36. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

37. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

38. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

39. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

40. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

41. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

42. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

43. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

44. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

45. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

46. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

47. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

48. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

49. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

50. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

51. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

52. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

53. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

54. TERM is misreported. If it's dumb, unknown, or unset, cursor control is treated as unsupported. Fix: export TERM=xterm-256color (or tmux-256color inside tmux) and restart cmd.

55. stdout isn't a real TTY. If cmd is started through a pipe, tee, a pager, or a wrapper that captures output, redraws degrade to newline printing. Run it directly in a terminal.

56. Stale LINES/COLUMNS. If those env vars are set from an old resize, the renderer computes a wrong viewport. unset LINES COLUMNS and restart.

57. Terminal emulator quirks. Old or minimal terminals (or IDE panels that don't implement cursor addressing) cause exactly this. iTerm2, Ghostty, Alacritty, and VS Code's integrated terminal all handle it
    fine.

Check with echo $TERM and st

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TER

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior.

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback

Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right place since it'd be
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right place since it'd be a rendering bug.
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right place since it'd be a rendering bug.
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right place since it'd be a rendering bug.
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right place since it'd be a rendering bug.
Check with echo $TERM and stty size first — a wrong TERM is the classic cause of this specific stacking behavior. If TERM looks right, try a different terminal emulator; if it persists there, /feedback or
the GitHub tracker is the right place since it'd be a rendering bug.

◇ Conjuring… esc to interrupt • 1m 17s • ↓ 12.1k
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ○ Conjuring… esc to interrupt • 1m 17s • ↓ 12.1k

Expected Behavior

The TUI status bar and thinking indicator should update in-place on a single line using ANSI cursor movements, cleanly repainting the spinner without creating new lines in the terminal output.

Actual Behavior

Every time the spinner or thinking indicator repaints, it appends a new line to standard output. This creates dozens of repeated lines (e.g., ✻ Thinking… (29 lines) / ⠶ That's the TUI's status bar...) overflowing the terminal buffer.

Steps to reproduce the issue

Install command-code globally: npm i -g command-code@latest

Run command-code in a terminal window.

Initiate a prompt or action that triggers the live spinner / thinking output.

Observe that each animation frame prints on a new line rather than refreshing in place.

Command Code Version

OS: macOS (Darwin arm64)

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/IDE

Default macOS Terminal / iTerm2

Shell

zsh

Session file (optional)

No response

Fix prompt (optional)

Possible Cause / Notes
It seems the TUI renderer fails to detect proper TTY cursor control capabilities or lacks an ANSI cursor fallback check, forcing the redraw logic to fall back to newline printing (\n) instead of carriage returns (\r / ANSI control sequences).

Additional context

No response

Start at the TUI status bar and spinner renderer, then trace its ANSI cursor-control path and checks for TERM and whether stdout is a TTY. Reproduce the stacked output in the reported command-code terminal setup and compare it with direct TTY output. Done means supported terminals redraw in place while pipes, captured output, and unsupported terminals retain intentional newline behavior.