Content filtering blocks legitimate development work mid-session, causing work loss

Problem

Claude Code sessions are frequently interrupted by content filtering with the error:

API Error: 400 {"type":"error","error":{"type":"invalid_request_error","message":"Output blocked by content filtering policy"},"request_id":"..."}

This happens during routine development tasks like:

• Running git status and git fetch
• Checking CI pipeline status
• Creating workflow files (GitHub Actions, SLSA provenance)
• Writing todo lists
• Normal code commits and PR operations

Impact

When this error occurs mid-session:

1. Work is lost - the session context up to that point cannot be recovered
2. No clear recovery path - starting a new session loses all the context from the interrupted work
3. Unpredictable - happens on innocuous operations making it hard to avoid

Request IDs for Investigation

Here are all content filtering incidents from my debug logs with request IDs that Anthropic can investigate:

Incident 1: 2026-01-17T07:41:40 UTC

• Context: Read tool operation after TodoWrite task
• Request IDs:
• req_011CXCaBqmvDw28LfLwpCJMV (streaming attempt)
• req_011CXCaCecjfD6aRFhWF8Fwd (non-streaming fallback)

Incident 2: 2026-01-30T06:54:34 UTC

• Context: After Bash PostToolUse hook processing
• Request IDs:
• req_011CXd87n48tn9zvjFcvgrtc (streaming attempt)
• req_011CXd88NQNLbbk296iGqBHT (non-streaming fallback)

Incident 3: 2026-01-30T07:02:51 UTC

• Context: After writing .github/workflows/slsa-provenance.yml workflow file
• Request IDs:
• req_011CXd8kU6RuvF69LrBba44b (streaming attempt)
• req_011CXd8kw9N7t8Qjd2z7oTHM (non-streaming fallback)

Incident 4: 2026-01-30T07:10:44 UTC

• Context: After running git status, git fetch, git log for CI improvements
• Request IDs:
• req_011CXd9MDNNjNftNLDxyZnuY (streaming attempt)
• req_011CXd9MoNmoMuRHcbo9twFn (non-streaming fallback)

Pattern Analysis

All incidents occurred during legitimate software development:

• Writing GitHub Actions workflow files
• Git operations (status, fetch, log)
• Task management (TodoWrite)
• CI/CD pipeline improvements for a TYPO3 PHP extension

None of these activities should trigger content filtering.

Suggested Improvements

1. Don't block on false positives - Review the filtering policy to avoid blocking clearly legitimate dev operations
2. Graceful degradation - Instead of hard blocking, offer to rephrase or continue differently
3. Session recovery - Provide a way to resume the session after a content block, even if the specific output is suppressed
4. Clearer feedback - Indicate what triggered the block so users can understand and potentially rephrase

Environment

• Claude Code CLI versions: 2.1.23.fa2, 2.1.23.296
• Model: claude-opus-4-5-20251101
• Platform: Linux (WSL2)