CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_TERMINAL_IMAGES
A Claude Code environment variable, read out of the shipped bundle. It has been in the build since v2.1.275, including the newest one read.
Claude Code now probes terminals for kitty's image-display protocol, though most users see no effect yet
Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.275.
In the changelogs
4Releases whose published page names CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_TERMINAL_IMAGES.
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v2.1.310
Inline images inside tmux are kept in place when the pane moves or regains focus
Inside tmux with passthrough on, Claude Code now tracks the pane and redraws inline images when it moves, resizes or regains focus
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.305
Separate check for iTerm-style inline images
Claude Code now checks separately whether iTerm-style inline images can be used, skipping them in background sessions and in tmux or screen
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.277
Terminal image-support capability detection reworked into a settle/cache class
Terminal image-support detection was rebuilt around a proper pending/settled state machine
found in this entry's text, named in this entry
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v2.1.275
Kitty terminal image protocol probing wired in but unresolved for most users
Claude Code now probes terminals for kitty's image-display protocol, though most users see no effect yet
found in this entry's text
First cited
2The earliest release whose published evidence quoted CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_TERMINAL_IMAGES was v2.1.275, 17 Sep 2026. That is the oldest release this project wrote about it, so it is a floor on the name's age and not the release that introduced it. It is not a presence reading: which builds carried the name is the table below.
Presence across releases
1Build by build
41One row per release since the first build this name was read out of. Absent means the build was read and the name was not in it, never mined means no bundle for that release was ever archived, and a declared type or a default is only ever what that release's own bundle stated.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the environment variable does. All environment variables.