[MODEL] sonnet 4.6
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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_
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