claude-highlight

Colors the hedges in Claude Code's output, live, as it streams.

Words like likely, seems, assuming, untested and obviously get a color so you can see at a glance where the model is guessing, admitting a gap, or overclaiming. Nothing else about the session changes.

Install

npm install -g claude-highlight
bun install -g claude-highlight

Use

claude-highlight              # instead of: claude
claude-highlight --resume     # any claude arguments pass straight through

Press F9 during a session to toggle categories. Changes apply immediately and are saved.

Scripts and hooks still get the real claude.

claude-highlight --hl-selftest   # prints sample text; check that color shows up
claude-highlight --hl-help       # the wrapper's own flags

What gets colored

| category | examples | default | |---|---|---| | inference | likely, probably | on | | unknown | untested, can't verify | on | | assumption | assuming, in theory | on | | appearance | seems, looks like | on | | overclaim | obviously, clearly | on | | modal | might, could be | off | | vagueness | roughly, several | off | | softener | a bit, fairly | off |

Only Claude's prose is colored. Your own messages, inline code, and fenced code with a language tag are left alone. A fenced block with no language looks like prose in the byte stream, so hedge words inside one are still colored.

Config

~/.config/claude-highlight/config.json (honors XDG_CONFIG_HOME), re-read whenever it changes. Add words to a category, or define your own:

{
  "categories": {
    "inference": { "add": ["gut feel", "ballpark"] }
  },
  "custom": {
    "deadline": {
      "color": "38;5;99", "on": true, "desc": "schedule risk",
      "terms": ["slipping", "at risk", "behind schedule"]
    }
  }
}

Terms are matched literally; prefix with re: for a regex. Terms that fail to compile are skipped and listed by --hl-selftest.

How it works

It runs claude on a pseudo-terminal and wraps matched words in ANSI color codes on the way to your screen. Color codes are zero-width, so Claude Code's layout is unaffected. A filter keeps matches out of escape sequences and handles words split across stream chunks; a shadow screen removes color that would otherwise linger after Claude redraws a line, and keeps color out of the input box while you type.

Development

git clone https://github.com/NoahBPeterson/claude-highlight
npm run test:all      # every suite, under node
npm run test:all:bun  # same suites, under bun
bun run build         # dist/, what the published bin points at

Building needs Bun, but running does not. The pty comes from node-pty under Node and from openpty via bun:ffi under Bun. Everything else is shared.

The repo also contains src/hedge_scan.ts, which scores your local Claude Code transcripts with the same lexicon, and src/hedge_hook.ts, a Stop hook that flags hedge-heavy turns. Neither is part of the npm package.

License

MIT