[MODEL] Claude Code asserts it has found the problem more than it actually does

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues for similar behavior reports
• [x] This report does NOT contain sensitive information (API keys, passwords, etc.)

Type of Behavior Issue

Other unexpected behavior

What You Asked Claude to Do

Please convert these markdown files to Word using the pandoc-reference.docx I am providing.

What Claude Actually Did

It took Claude 4 times to figure out that it couldn't just inject content into style.xml, it produced corrupted files and kept saying, "I found the problem, all I have to do is. . . " and of course it failed.

Expected Behavior

I expected Claude to be able to help with the formatting of the Word document, but it did not. This is very much like the huge amount of time I lost trying to get Claude to create an html table with a sticky header row and scroll bars. After over a day of attempts, I finally told Claude to use tabulator and even though it took 2 hours, that got the job done. I mention this because having some sort of spatial sense and utility with documents and text seems to be something Claude lacks. Meanwhile, I asked ChatGPT to clean up the Word document and it had no problem.

Files Affected

Permission Mode

Accept Edits was ON (auto-accepting changes)

Can You Reproduce This?

Haven't tried to reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

I haven't tried to reproduce the same exact problem, but it does (frequently) repeat the pattern on a certain class of tasks.

Claude Model

Sonnet

Relevant Conversation

Impact

Medium - Extra work to undo changes

Claude Code Version

Claude Code 2.1.79.

Platform

Anthropic API

Additional Context

I asked Claude to use pandocs to convert markdown into Word Docs, it has taken almost 2 hours and it STILL hasn't done it correctly. It keeps saying, "I found the problem ..." and I jump through hoops, wait for it to process and surprise, it fails. It appears that when it comes to menial labor, Claude sucks. I have literally wasted one full day trying to get Claude to create an html table with a sticky header, scroll bars and a few other features that are all over the web. It was infuriating. I finally told it to use tabulator and even though that took almost 2 hours to implement, at least it worked.