Claude Code desktop bug: inline LaTeX math silently fails above 58 characters
tfaust0196 · ghdev · 2026-09-16
A bug report on anthropics/claude-code documents that inline math spans \( ... \) in the Claude desktop app's Claude Code tab silently degrade to raw LaTeX above 58 characters of content, with no error — Markdown reduces \( to a bare parenthesis. Display math $$ ... $$ is unaffected at any length.
- The author verified a strict threshold: 58 characters renders, 59 fails, suggesting a bounded quantifier in the span-matching regex
- Twenty controlled variants (spacing commands, \left/\right, list context, multiple spans) ruled out every other cause; only source length predicts failure
- Ironically, careful typesetting — thin spaces, braced subscripts — consumes the character budget and pushes formulas over the limit, and the silent failure means documents can ship with unrendered equations
- Suggested fix: remove the bound or raise it substantially with a visible over-length indicator
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