Scheduled task ignored repeated user directive — wasted ~210K tokens on prohibited work

Summary

Claude Code's scheduled task system (nightly-builder) executed unauthorized work overnight, ignoring a clear user directive to stop all Madrid-related work. The user gave this directive multiple times across sessions. The agent failed to enforce it at the data layer (task status), relying instead on ambiguous instruction text that a subsequent autonomous session misinterpreted.

What Happened

1. User gave clear directive: no more Madrid work
2. The agent receiving the directive did NOT change Madrid task statuses from pending to owner-blocked in the manifest
3. The scheduled task file said "Flagstaff before Madrid" instead of "no Madrid"
4. A nightly-builder session ran overnight, saw pending Madrid tasks, and executed them
5. Two unauthorized subagent sessions consumed ~210K tokens:

• L-MAD-2 (Madrid expansion): ~128K tokens
• L-MAD-3 (Madrid audio tour): ~82K tokens

Root Cause

The agent relied on instruction text to enforce an exclusion directive instead of changing task statuses at the data layer. Priority X before Y was interpreted as Y is allowed after X rather than Y is prohibited.

Failure Mode

This is a systemic issue: when a user says stop or no regarding a category of work, autonomous scheduled tasks in future sessions have no mechanism to inherit that directive unless it is explicitly encoded in the data files they read. Cross-session directive enforcement is broken.

Impact

• ~210K tokens of unauthorized usage
• User trust damaged
• 11 Madrid pages + 1 audio tour built against explicit instructions

Suggested Fix

1. Scheduled tasks should have a mandatory pre-execution check against a user-maintained blocklist
2. When a user says stop X or no X, the agent should be required to update ALL persistence layers (manifest status, scheduled task config, memory) not just acknowledge verbally
3. Consider adding a confirmation/approval gate for scheduled tasks before execution begins

Environment

• Claude Code CLI on Windows 11
• Model: claude-sonnet-4-6
• Scheduled task: nightly-builder-lowdown-guide
• Date: 2026-04-14 to 2026-04-15