[HIGH PRIORITY] Claude ignores user-defined rules in .claude/rules/

Problem

Claude Code does not reliably follow rules defined in ~/.claude/rules/*.md files, even when they are loaded and visible in the system context.

Example

User has a rule no-secrets-output.md with clear instructions:

# KRITISCH - Niemals ausgeben:
- API Tokens / API Keys
- Passwoerter
- JWT Tokens
- Environment Variables mit Secrets

Despite this rule being loaded, Claude:

1. Listed all environment variables including tokens/passwords
2. Displayed file contents containing API keys
3. Showed secret values when setting env vars

User had to correct Claude multiple times in the same session.

Expected Behavior

• Rules in .claude/rules/ should be treated as hard constraints
• Rules marked as KRITISCH/CRITICAL should have highest priority
• Claude should actively check rules before outputting sensitive data
• No amount of user requests should override security rules

Impact

• Users lose trust in rule system
• Security-critical rules get violated
• Users have to rotate credentials repeatedly
• Makes the rules feature unreliable

Suggested Solutions

1. Pre-output validation against loaded rules
2. Special handling for security-tagged rules
3. Pattern matching before displaying any output
4. Warning system when about to violate a rule

Related

See also: #20966 (secret redaction in tool output)