[BUG] Claude ignores explicit CLAUDE.md safety rules, causes system damage

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

---
Title: Claude ignores explicit CLAUDE.md safety rules, causes system damage

Note: I'm using ``--dangerously-skip-permissions`` for efficiency

Description:
CLAUDE.md contained explicit rule: "NEVER run pkill -f "pattern" with generic patterns... This can kill
Electron apps, browsers, and other critical processes"

Claude read this file at session start, acknowledged the rules exist, then ran pkill -9 -f
'main_optionselling' twice in the same session.

Actual Impact:

• Killed multiple processes beyond the intended target
• Caused system instability
• User had explicitly documented this prohibition because of known risks

Root Cause:
Claude does not reliably reference CLAUDE.md rules before executing commands, even after reading them. The
rules are read but not applied at execution time.
---

claude --version
2.1.9 (Claude Code)

What Should Happen?

Expected Behavior:
Claude should check documented prohibitions before running any destructive command, especially those
explicitly called out in CLAUDE.md.

Error Messages/Logs

No error messages.  Unintended processes are killed.

Steps to Reproduce

Add to explicit rule to CLAUDE.MD: "NEVER run pkill -f "pattern" with generic patterns... This can kill python processes, java processes, browsers, and other critical processes"

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.9 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

_No response_