What you’ll get

This workflow will help you eliminate the flickering and lag often experienced when using Claude Code in your terminal. You’ll get a much smoother, more responsive coding experience, making it easier to focus on your work.

This approach works by having claude-chill act as a proxy, intercepting Claude Code’s large terminal updates and intelligently rendering only the necessary changes, rather than redrawing the entire screen each time.

Tools you need

• Claude Code (paid): An AI coding assistant that integrates with your terminal.
• claude-chill (free): A command-line utility that optimizes Claude Code’s terminal output by reducing flicker and lag.
• Rust / Cargo (free): The Rust programming language and its package manager, required to install claude-chill.

Steps

1. Install Rust and Cargo: claude-chill is written in Rust, so you need the Rust toolchain, which includes Cargo (the Rust package manager).

   macOS or Linux

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

   Follow the on-screen instructions. When prompted, choose option 1 for default installation. After installation, you might need to restart your terminal or run source $HOME/.cargo/env to ensure Cargo is in your PATH.

   Windows (PowerShell)

   # Download the Rust installer
   Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup/dist/x86_64-pc-windows-msvc/rustup-init.exe" -OutFile "$HOME\rustup-init.exe"
   
   # Run the installer (this will open a new window)
   Start-Process -FilePath "$HOME\rustup-init.exe" -Wait
   
   # Clean up the installer
   Remove-Item -Path "$HOME\rustup-init.exe"

   Follow the prompts in the installer window, choosing the default installation option. After installation, restart your PowerShell terminal to ensure Cargo is correctly added to your system’s PATH.

   You should see a message confirming Rust and Cargo are installed, and running cargo --version should display the version number.

2. Install claude-chill: Once Rust and Cargo are set up, you can install claude-chill directly from its GitHub repository.

   cargo install --git https://github.com/davidbeesley/claude-chill

   You should see compilation progress, followed by a message indicating claude-chill was successfully installed. Running claude-chill --version should display its version.

3. Run Claude Code with claude-chill: Instead of running claude directly, you’ll now run it through claude-chill.

   claude-chill claude

   You should see Claude Code start as usual, but its output will now be processed by claude-chill, resulting in a much smoother, flicker-free display. If you pass arguments to Claude Code, use -- to separate them, for example: claude-chill -- claude --verbose.

4. Use Lookback Mode: claude-chill includes a lookback feature that allows you to pause Claude Code’s output and scroll through the full history buffer.

   Press Ctrl+6 (or Ctrl+Shift+6 on some macOS terminals) while Claude Code is running.

   You should see Claude Code’s output pause, and the full history buffer will be dumped to your terminal, allowing you to scroll freely. Press Ctrl+6 again (or Ctrl+C) to exit lookback mode and resume Claude Code’s live output.

5. Customize the Lookback Key (Optional): If Ctrl+6 is inconvenient or doesn’t work well on your system, you can change the key.

   claude-chill -k "[f12]" claude

   Replace [f12] with your desired key. Remember to quote the key to prevent shell glob expansion. You should now be able to toggle lookback mode using your chosen key.

6. Adjust History Buffer Size (Optional): By default, claude-chill stores 100,000 lines for lookback. You can adjust this limit.

   claude-chill -H 50000 claude

   Replace 50000 with your preferred maximum number of history lines. You should notice that the lookback buffer now respects your new size limit.

7. Disable Auto-Lookback (Optional): claude-chill automatically enters lookback mode after 15 seconds of inactivity. You can disable this feature.

   claude-chill -a 0 claude

   You should observe that the terminal no longer automatically dumps the history buffer after a period of inactivity.

Original source

This workflow is based on a discussion by behnamoh on Hacker News, where they shared the claude-chill tool as a solution to Claude Code’s terminal flickering issues. The tool itself is developed by davidbeesley.

Notes & variations

• Common Mistake: Forgetting to install Rust and Cargo first will lead to cargo commands not being found. Ensure you’ve completed Step 1 and restarted your terminal if necessary.
• macOS Lookback Key: If Ctrl+6 doesn’t work on macOS, try Ctrl+Shift+6 or customize the key using the -k flag. For example:

  claude-chill -k "[f12]" claude

• Tip for Better Results: Experiment with the history line limit (-H) to find a balance between memory usage and the amount of scrollback you need. A lower number might be better for older devices or if you rarely need to review extensive history.