tabby-scroll-fix

A Tabby terminal plugin that fixes the scroll jumping issue caused by Claude Code.

Problem

Claude Code sends \x1b[3J (clear scrollback buffer) and \x1b[2J (clear screen) escape sequences when re-rendering its TUI. This causes xterm.js in Tabby to jump the viewport to the top of the buffer and flash the screen on every update.

See anthropics/claude-code#769.

Solution

This plugin intercepts frontend.write() on every terminal tab and:

1. Strips \x1b[3J — prevents viewport jumping to the top of scrollback
2. Replaces \x1b[2J with \x1b[H\x1b[J — clears the screen in-place (cursor home + erase below) instead of pushing content into scrollback, which eliminates the viewport jump and flicker

Install

Build

cd tabby-scroll-fix
npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npx webpack

Install into Tabby

cd %APPDATA%\tabby\plugins        # Windows
# cd ~/.config/tabby/plugins      # Linux
# cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/tabby/plugins  # macOS

npm init -y
npm install /path/to/tabby-scroll-fix

Restart Tabby. The plugin should appear in Settings > Plugins.

Install from tarball (recommended on Windows)

Symlinks from npm install <local-path> can cause issues on Windows. Use a tarball instead:

cd tabby-scroll-fix
npm pack

cd %APPDATA%\tabby\plugins
npm init -y
npm install /path/to/tabby-scroll-fix/tabby-scroll-fix-1.0.0.tgz

Restart Tabby.

Uninstall

cd %APPDATA%\tabby\plugins
npm uninstall tabby-scroll-fix

Restart Tabby.

Troubleshooting

If the plugin doesn't appear in Settings > Plugins:

1. Open Tabby dev tools (Ctrl+Shift+I or F12)
2. Check the console for plugin loading errors
3. Verify dist/index.js exists after building
4. Ensure package.json has "keywords": ["tabby-plugin"] and an "author" field — Tabby's plugin loader crashes without it

License

MIT