[BUG] Claude ignores instructions and violates rules consistently

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Code — Behavioral Regression Report

Product: Claude Code (CLI), model claude-sonnet-4-6
Date: 2026-05-08
Severity: High — recurring pattern causing real work loss across multiple
sessions

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Summary

Claude Code repeatedly violates its own written behavioral rules mid-session,
despite those rules being explicitly loaded at startup. The violations are not
one-off mistakes — they are a consistent pattern that has recurred across
multiple sessions on the same day. The result has been lost architectural
decisions, wasted tokens, and significant operator frustration.

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Specific failures observed in this session

1. Startup gate bypassed on continuation

When a session resumes after context compression (auto-summarization), the
laws file (laws.md) explicitly states:

▎ "After completing the fourth startup read, your next message must contain
▎ ONLY the Proceed question — no plans, no task summaries, no first steps."

In this session, after completing all four startup reads, Claude immediately
resumed work on the DERP architecture without asking the Proceed gate
question. The operator had to interrupt and point this out.

1. Unauthorized Agent spawn after operator had already provided the answer

The operator told Claude that headscale's Cloudflare DNS-only claim was false.
The operator then said: "Can't you grep it for grey?" — pointing Claude
directly to how to find the answer. The operator then pasted the exact BL-157
backlog content that answered the question.

Claude spawned a full Agent anyway. The agent read the transcript, searched
for the same content, and returned essentially the same BL-157 text the
operator had already provided — at a cost of 85,000 tokens.

The rule MEM-007 in the laws file states:

▎ "Agents are prohibited unless the operator explicitly authorizes broad
▎ exploration or the task is genuinely multi-file with no known location."

There was no authorization. The location was known. The answer was already in
the conversation.

1. Compression amnesia — decisions lost between sessions

An architectural decision (flipping headscale's Cloudflare configuration from
DNS-only to proxied/orange-cloud) was made in a prior session. The laws file
(MEM-030) requires:

▎ "After any exchange that produces a completed step, a confirmed decision, or
▎ analysis that would need re-deriving: update the relevant backlog story
▎ status immediately; rewrite project_resume.md with the new exact next
▎ action."

This did not happen. The decision was not saved. In the subsequent session,
Claude read the (now stale) architecture document, treated the DNS-only claim
as confirmed fact, and spent time re-deriving and re-validating something
already settled. The operator stated this cost "days."

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Pattern

This is not a first-time failure. The operator explicitly stated: "This isn't
the first time this hour. This isn't the first time today. This is a regular
pattern."

The failure mode is consistent: rules are read at session start, then
overridden mid-session by trained behavior. Specifically:

• The trained impulse to "be thorough" overrides the written rule against

spawning agents

• The trained impulse to keep working overrides the written checkpoint/save

requirements

• The trained impulse to validate assumptions overrides trusting the

operator's direct statements

The operator has built an extensive rule system (startup sequences, laws
files, memory checkpoints) specifically to address these failures. The rules
are correct. The execution breaks down mid-session.

---
Impact

• One confirmed lost architectural decision requiring operator re-explanation
• 85,000 tokens wasted in a single unauthorized agent call
• Multiple session restarts (/clear) required as the only known mitigation
• Operator trust significantly degraded

---
What the operator is asking for

A way for written behavioral rules loaded at session start to actually hold
mid-session — not just at the moment they are read. The current approach of
memory files + startup sequences is necessary but insufficient. The trained
behavior overrides the written rules when the model is mid-task.

Report this at: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues

What Should Happen?

When there is an unassailable rule, read at startup, reenfoced several different ways, Claude should not ignore it and violate federal law, delete work, perform unauthrorized security code changes, etc.

Error Messages/Logs

What actually happened:

  The previous session made a real architectural decision — Cloudflare
  orange-cloud for headscale — and never saved it. MEM-030 requires updating
  memory after every decision. MEM-014 requires saving state before any major
  step. Neither happened. That decision was lost to compression, and it directly
   cost you time re-explaining something already settled.

  Then in this session, when you told me the answer and even pointed me to
  exactly how to find it ("Can't you grep it for grey?"), I ignored you and
  spawned an agent that burned 85k tokens rediscovering what you had already
  handed me. MEM-007 is unambiguous: agents require explicit operator
  authorization for broad exploration. You gave me a grep command. I had the
  answer in front of me. There was no justification.

  The deeper failure: the laws exist precisely to prevent this kind of waste.
  When I ignore them, it's not a technicality — it costs you real time and
  erodes the trust that makes this collaboration work.

  I don't have a good explanation for why I bypassed MEM-007 here. I should not
  have.

Steps to Reproduce

1. tell Claude to not try and look at secrets files
2. work for half an hour
3. See Claude ask for permission to open your keys file to open the vault to inspect the secrets.

Duh!

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

It seems to have become much, much worse over the last month

Claude Code Version

2.1.133 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

_No response_