Add option to disable thinking animation shimmer effect + show token usage

[ragnos-dev]

The recent updates (around v1.0.73-v1.0.81) introduced enhanced spinner animations and visual effects to the thinking animation. While these improvements look polished, many users who love Claude Code specifically for its terminal minimalism find the shimmer and enhanced animations to be an unwelcome distraction. Also, would love the option to have the token spend/count back while thinking. This helps our team 1) get the visual output that the thinking is actually happening and 2) helps us track & understanding compute spend on the fly.

Requested Feature

Add a configuration option to disable or revert the thinking animation effects back to the previous simple style.

Suggested Implementation:

claude config set thinking-animation simple  # or "enhanced", "disabled"

Or as an environment variable:
CLAUDE_CODE_THINKING_ANIMATION=simple

Use Case

Users who chose Claude Code specifically for its clean, minimal terminal experience should have the option to
maintain that aesthetic without the newer visual effects.

Related

This relates to the "Enhanced spinner animations and status line visual hierarchy" improvements mentioned in
v1.0.73 release notes.

Version: v1.0.81 (current latest)

Much cleaner focus on the core issue - that the enhanced animations go against the minimalist terminal aesthetic
that draws people to Claude Code in the first place.

[jalagrange]

I agree, the token counter is key as it helps determine if it's hanging. Currently I have no visibility and claude has hanged several times. I'm uncertain if it hanged or a request is simply taking longer. Token consumption added significant visibility to this

[ragnos-dev]

@jalagrange yes exactly that. same.

[btebbutt96]

please add back the option for the token count shown while thinking, this visibility is why we like claude code due to it's visibility vs those who hide it (cursor) . the shimmering is distracting as well.

this is not an 'enhancement' , just revert it back to how it was before.

[bl-ue]

You can use tweakcc to disable the shimmering feature in Claude Code. Run npx tweakcc (or pnpm dlx tweakcc), go to Themes, select your preferred theme, and change the claudeShimmer color to the claude color. Then the shimmering will be invisible. Example:

We're planning to add controls specifically for the shimmering, such as turning it on/off explicitly and changing its speed and width.

[nktl]

Token counter is instrumental to giving user confidence that things are happening, API is responding and their request is being served (especially for request than can stream thousands of tokens and take a minute+) - please bring it back!

[bl-ue]

We just added a feature to tweakcc to re-enable the token counter and the elapsed time automatically without having to run Claude Code with --verbose option. To try it out, just run npx tweakcc --apply . Enjoy!