New keybindingFlavor setting for readline-style prompt editing / Claude Code v2.1.238

Use it now

Useful5 Signal2

Input Editing Notable

Set keybindingFlavor to readline and Ctrl+W deletes back to whitespace like Bash does.

keybindingFlavor

What

A new settings key, keybindingFlavor, picks which editing-key conventions the prompt input follows. Set it to "readline" and Ctrl+W deletes back to the previous whitespace, the way Bash and other readline programs behave. The default when unset is "classic", which keeps the long-standing behaviour of deleting the previous word. No experiment flag is involved; anyone who sets the key gets it.

Details

Accepted values are "classic" and "readline"; the value is optional and an unrecognised one falls back to undefined, meaning classic behaviour.
"keybindingFlavor" was added to the list of known settings keys alongside forceLoginMethod, cleanupPeriodDays and autoCompactWindow.
The readline path adds a delete-to-previous-whitespace cursor operation, distinct from the existing delete-previous-word.
The flavor is read once per session and consumed by both the main prompt input and a second single-line input component.
This is separate from the existing normal/vim editing mode.

Usage

{ "keybindingFlavor": "readline" }

Evidence

keybindingFlavor, Which conventions the prompt's editing keys follow: "readline" matches Bash and other readline programs (Ctrl+W deletes back to the previous whitespace); "classic" (default) keeps Claude Code's long-standing behavior (Ctrl+W deletes the previous word), "readline" matches Bash and other readline programs (Ctrl+W deletes back to the previous whitespace)

Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.