[FEATURE] Claude should grep for all references before editing/removing code — the default behavior is brain dead and wastes endless human and Claude cycles

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Claude tends to read specific files instead of searching project-wide first. This leads to missed references and long debugging cycles. When renaming a function, removing a variable, or refactoring a component, Claude often edits only the file it's looking at — missing callers, listeners, event handlers, and shared state in other files.

Real example: a refactor extracted helpers to a new module but missed updating one import. The app showed a black screen on load. Three sessions were spent debugging before a project-wide grep found the missing reference in 50ms.

Proposed Solution

Before any rename, removal, or refactor, Claude should automatically grep the entire project for all references to the symbol being changed. This should be default behavior, not something users have to teach via CLAUDE.md.

Specifically:

1. Before renaming: grep the old name project-wide, update all references
2. Before removing: grep to find all callers/importers, confirm nothing depends on it
3. Before refactoring: grep to find all usages, understand the full blast radius

Grepping takes ~50ms on most projects via ripgrep. The cost of not doing it is broken builds and multi-hour debugging sessions.

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

Performance and speed

Use Case Example

Real programmers use grep constantly. This is the single highest-leverage behavioral change for code quality — cross-file interactions are the #1 source of AI-introduced bugs.