How to see what you pasted in Claude Code

The problem

You copy a block of text — an error log, a config file, a chunk of code — and paste it into Claude Code. Instead of seeing what you pasted, you get a collapsed grey block that says something like "5 lines hidden." You have no idea what actually went in.

This is the single most upvoted complaint in the Claude Code GitHub issues right now. People paste five lines and the whole thing disappears behind a fold.

The fix

Hold Shift when you paste.

That's it. Shift + Cmd+V on Mac, Shift + Ctrl+V on Windows/Linux.

Claude Code will show the full text inline instead of collapsing it. You can read what you pasted, edit it before sending, and know exactly what the model is going to see.

Why it matters

If you're debugging something and paste an error message you can't see, you're flying blind. You don't know if you accidentally included extra lines, missed a bracket, or pasted the wrong thing entirely. The collapsed view hides all of that.

The Shift trick is a small thing, but it changes how confident you feel about what you're sending. Especially when you're pasting something you need to get right — a prompt, a config block, or a piece of code you want Claude to fix.

Words worth knowing

CLI — Command line interface. A text-based way to interact with software, as opposed to clicking buttons in a window.

Collapsed input — When a tool hides long text behind a fold to keep the interface clean. Useful until you need to see what's actually there.