What
Claude Code could already draw pictures in terminals that support the kitty graphics method. It now also supports iTerm2's inline image method.
- A new
itermImagesterminal capability, off by default, is on only when the terminal identifies itself as iTerm2 3.5.0 or later. - It is off inside tmux or screen and in background-worker sessions, separate from the existing
CLAUDE_CODE_FORCE_TERMINAL_IMAGEScheck. - iTerm2 images are disabled in scroll-region mode, in the classic renderer, and when
CLAUDE_CODE_ALT_SCREEN_FULL_REPAINTis set, because every frame would resend the picture. - In the fullscreen renderer, images are placed on each frame after the screen update.
- They need PNG or raw pixel bytes; an image from a file or shared memory falls back to text, which now says the terminal draws neither kitty placeholder images nor iTerm2 inline images.
Why
If you use a recent iTerm2 with fullscreen mode, images such as those drawn by plugins can now appear instead of placeholder text.