I agree with what I think you meant: it is not a bug in Claude. However "javascript on the backend" is exactly what Claude Code is! It's a node.js implementation of automation components that feed and pull from the Claude model.
I have a VERY hard time believing that they only use JSON serialization between the model and the TUI. If they're seriealizing JSON between agents, tools, or other components, then this problem is going to continue to persist for a very long time.
This symptom was affecting display of numbers in the TUI, but the real bug/design flaw is using jq or JSON as a transport mechanism between components or between tools. JSON's number range is famously poor and it even architecture-dependent. So if you use jq or JSON to connect components or tools, you will have this same problem silently occurring elsewhere without visibility in the UI.
This is a bigger deal than it seems like! A confidence-inducing fix would include a blog post describing a top-to-bottom audit of jq/JSON used as a transport layer between tools and components. Not just a patch to the most visible problem.
It made it to the front page at about #11. Then apparently the editors renamed it to the (less interesting/more convoluted) title of the page it linked to. I didn't cause or approve that change. Why does HN rewrite my post? Is it because it was negative to Claude Code?
It seems like they ought to have at least clarified the context, though. "Large integer precision error in Bash command output rendering" doesn't mean anything to anyone. If anything, it sounds like a bug in Bash.
It's also not a real rule. If you use the original title, they will regularly "fix" "misleading" or "clickbait" titles too. All of which is completely subjective at the whim of the mod team with zero transparency.
A matter of opinion, but I actually don’t think the current headline is too bad. When I saw the headline and “github.com/anthropic” next to it, my initial assumption was that it must be a problem introduced by Claude Code rather than a bug in bash or something.
That said, I don’t think your edited headline was bad either, but perhaps there wasn’t enough reason not to use the original (which is a default I personally appreciate on HN).
First, HN prefers the source title unless that title is misleaing clickbait.
Second, the problem is not consistently off-by-one errors, as there is a manifestation shown in the bug of an off-by-much-less-than-one error. The problem looks like a "for some reason it seems to be roundtripping numbers in text through a numeric representation which has about [perhaps exactly] the same precisions issues as float64" issue.
Looks like it has to be the full tool output to be coerced:
> Can you run this through bash: echo '348555896224571969 plus 2 is 348555896224571971'
Bash(echo '348555896224571969 plus 2 is 348555896224571971')
⎿ 348555896224571969 plus 2 is 348555896224571971
This question sounds like it was asked by a private equity investor looking to sample the tech zeitgeist before buying up and destroying some beloved tool.
Nah, the point is these businesses are so good the owner would never sell. So there's nothing to buy. It's more for inspiration, like, what does a good, neat, fun, useful, little internet business look like?
That book has a few sections describing policy arguments on the floor of the New York Senate which are so well written that they are absolutely riveting! It sounds ridiculous to say that political arguments (from 100+ years ago) could keep you on the edge of your seat, but they do. It’s why this book the Pulitzer Prize.
> Some insult to do with the pea jacket (legend quotes it as “Won’t Mamma’s boy catch cold?”) caused Roosevelt to flare up. “Teddy knocked him down,” Hunt recalled admiringly, “and he got up and he hit him again, and when he got up he hit him again, and he said, ‘Now you go over there and wash yourself. There was a broken chair in the room, and I got a leg of it loose and put it down beside me where it was not visible, but where I might get at it in a hurry if necessary I then put the bill in my pocket and announced that I would report it anyhow. This almost precipitated a riot, especially when I explained … that I suspected that the men holding up all report of the bill were holding it up for purposes of blackmail. The riot did not come off; partly, I think, because the opportune production of the chair-leg had a sedative effect, and partly owing to wise counsels from one or two of my opponents.
I have a VERY hard time believing that they only use JSON serialization between the model and the TUI. If they're seriealizing JSON between agents, tools, or other components, then this problem is going to continue to persist for a very long time.