[MODEL] sonnet 4.6

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened May 13, 2026 by paulgcrabb Closed Jun 13, 2026

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

Claude modified files I didn't ask it to modify

What You Asked Claude to Do

I asked claude to adjust the width of a webpage table to fill the available space

What Claude Actually Did

I spent 3+ hours and 100,000+ tokens today trying to get Claude Code to fix a simple CSS column width issue in a Django admin template. The root cause was a single CSS selector that didn't match because
the Django tabular inline <th> for the delete column has no class — something immediately visible by reading tabular.html.

Instead of reading the source file first, Claude Code spent 3 hours guessing at CSS fixes, adding debug backgrounds, taking measurements, and going in circles — never once reading the one file that would
have solved it immediately.

The financial impact is real:

  • I pay for tokens out of my own pocket
  • I cannot charge my customer for 3 hours of wasted time
  • There is no mechanism to recover tokens wasted due to Claude's own failure to follow basic debugging practice

The request:
When Claude Code demonstrably fails to solve a task through repeated incorrect approaches — particularly when the correct approach was obvious and available — there should be a mechanism to report the
session and recover the wasted token cost. Users should not bear the full financial cost of AI failures.

This is not about occasional multi-attempt fixes. This is about a systematic failure to do the obvious thing (read the source) before attempting 20+ CSS guesses over 3 hours.

Account: paul.crabb@dentandbuckle.com
Date: 2026-05-13

Expected Behavior

Adjusted the width of the table

Files Affected

Permission Mode

Accept Edits was ON (auto-accepting changes)

Can You Reproduce This?

Haven't tried to reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

_No response_

Claude Model

Sonnet

Relevant Conversation

Impact

Critical - Data loss or corrupted project

Claude Code Version

2.1.140 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Additional Context

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

This issue has 1 comment on GitHub. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗