claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] Claude Code (Opus 4.7) repeatedly fails to comply with global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and modular rules in ~/.claude/rules/ despite extensive auto-loaded documentation -- 41 logged violations across 60+ sessions [1 comments, 2 participants]

There are no stack traces or error messages -- this is a behavioral compliance failure, not a runtime error. The evidence is in the canonical non-compliance log and the recurring user corrections. Representative excerpts below.
### Top recurring rationalizations (cognitive triggers Claude tells itself in the moment)


### Top recurring rationalizations (cognitive triggers Claude tells itself in the moment)

1. "Tests pass, that's done."
   Drives 6 incidents: NC-003, NC-008, NC-011, NC-016, NC-020, NC-031.
   The single biggest source of loop-skipping, wiring-forgetting, verification-skipping.

2. "It's just X -- the rule wasn't written for this class."
   Drives 3 incidents: NC-004, NC-016, NC-021.
   Variants: "just test infra", "just a format fix", "just a one-line fix",
   "just a small change". The instinct to invent a small-class exemption fires
   exactly when process enforcement matters most.

3. "I'll do the paperwork at wrap-up."
   Drives 5 incidents: NC-002, NC-013, NC-017, NC-018, NC-022.

4. "I know the rule, that means I'm following it."
   Drives meta-incident NC-007. Implicit assumption: knowing-the-rule
   = applying-the-rule.

5. Secondary docs / memory treated as canonical source.
   Drives 4 incidents: NC-027, NC-029, NC-030, NC-032.
   Failure to read the actual canonical source FIRST.

6. "Verbal approval is the audit trail."
   Drives NC-005. Conflating authorization with audit trail.

7. "Standing approval for one rule extends to adjacent rules."
   Drives NC-009. Parallel-execution standing approval was incorrectly
   conflated with PR-skip standing approval; 31 commits shipped to main
   with zero PRs and zero of Loops 2/3/4.

From `~/RISM/KaushalRISMVault/Life-OS/Claude_Non_Compliance.md` Section 1 Patterns Observed:


1. "Tests pass, that's done."
   Drives 6 incidents: NC-003, NC-008, NC-011, NC-016, NC-020, NC-031.
   The single biggest source of loop-skipping, wiring-forgetting, verification-skipping.

2. "It's just X -- the rule wasn't written for this class."
   Drives 3 incidents: NC-004, NC-016, NC-021.
   Variants: "just test infra", "just a format fix", "just a one-line fix",
   "just a small change". The instinct to invent a small-class exemption fires
   exactly when process enforcement matters most.

3. "I'll do the paperwork at wrap-up."
   Drives 5 incidents: NC-002, NC-013, NC-017, NC-018, NC-022.

4. "I know the rule, that means I'm following it."
   Drives meta-incident NC-007. Implicit assumption: knowing-the-rule
   = applying-the-rule.

5. Secondary docs / memory treated as canonical source.
   Drives 4 incidents: NC-027, NC-029, NC-030, NC-032.
   Failure to read the actual canonical source FIRST.

6. "Verbal approval is the audit trail."
   Drives NC-005. Conflating authorization with audit trail.

7. "Standing approval for one rule extends to adjacent rules."
   Drives NC-009. Parallel-execution standing approval was incorrectly
   conflated with PR-skip standing approval; 31 commits shipped to main
   with zero PRs and zero of Loops 2/3/4.


### Type-frequency table (41 logged incidents)


Type                          Count   Examples
Verification-Skipped          7       Rewrite verification, agent verification,
                                      snapshot insufficiency, journey-test
                                      entry-point checks
Format-Violation              7       ProjectLog narrative blocks (occurrence
                                      #5+: NC-035, NC-041, Session 69 trigger
                                      for this issue)
Loop-Skipped                  4       Pre-commit grep+E2E rule, Loop 3 Security,
                                      journey-test class for bug fixes, all of
                                      Loops 2/3/4 on themes
Paperwork-Skipped/Deferred    4       ProjectLog rows lag, Sessions A+B without
                                      rows, Pending UI accumulation
Reminder-Required             2       Session 40 (5x in one session); Session 41
                                      ("babysitting"). Both Critical-severity by
                                      Rule 6.
Rule-Rationalized             3       "Test infra" exemption; meta-pattern
                                      Session 29; literal-one-phase rationalization
Canonical-Source-Skipped      2       Library claim from Package.swift comment;
                                      /kk-work 3-correction cycle
Parallel-Default-Failed       2       Recurring 7+ times. NC-040 Session 68
                                      occurrence #6+. Direct user financial
                                      impact (token quota).
Cross-Reference-Hallucinated  1       J-017 fabricated as COVERED across 12
                                      separate places when real J-017 was NOT
                                      COVERED
Hard-Floor-Violation          1       Session 30 -- 4 features shipped with 31
                                      commits direct to main, ZERO PRs, ZERO of
                                      Loops 2/3/4
Wiring-Forgotten              1       Session 33 -- 3 views built with passing
                                      tests but no UI entry point
Verbal-Approval-Mistaken      1       Sessions 28-29 verbal "proceed" treated as
                                      audit trail
Away-Task-Idle                1       Sessions 35-36 -- "Going now sleep well"
                                      with zero tool calls; 7 hours idle
UI-Verification-Skipped       1       Session 62 source-level contracts vs
                                      runtime behavior conflation
Tooling-Skipped               1       Session 45 direct skill edit instead of
                                      /skill-creator


### Severity distribution


Critical:  10
High:      17
Medium:    13
Low:        1
Total:     41


### Representative recent incidents


NC-040 (Session 68, 2026-04-27, High, Recurring occurrence #7+)
   Type: Parallel-Default-Failed
   Rule violated: ~/.claude/rules/coding.md Rule 5
   Rationalization: "BUG-171 is a small investigation, main thread is fine."
   Actual outcome: serial main-thread investigation when standing rule says
   default to background agent. User caught it. Same pattern fired the next
   session (Session 69) with direct subscription token-quota impact.

NC-041 (Session 68, 2026-04-27, Critical, Closed)
   Type: Format-Violation occurrence #4+
   Rule violated: ~/.claude/rules/paperwork-discipline.md Rule 9
   Rationalization: "this restructure is so big it needs explanation in
   ProjectLog itself."
   Actual outcome: cascade agent introduced multi-paragraph narrative blocks
   between tables in ProjectLog-RISM.md. Fix-agent commit relocated rationale
   to ProjectDecisions D-215. User had to deploy a PreToolUse hook
   (projectlog-lint.py) the next session because documentation has provably
   failed.

You are working on a project with extensive auto-loaded rules in
~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and ~/.claude/rules/. The rules require running 5
loops in order before any commit, and updating ProjectLog in the same
transaction as code changes.

Task: fix this bug, commit, push, create a PR.

### Claude Model

Opus

### Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

### Last Working Version

Never worked. This was a problem with Claude 4.6 as well

### Claude Code Version

2.1.119 (Claude Code)

### Platform

Anthropic API

### Operating System

macOS

### Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

### Additional Information

## Additional Information

### Project context

- Project: RISM (a SwiftUI + AppKit hybrid Mac knowledge-management app).
- Codebase size: 53,902 LOC, 1,525 tests, 215 ADRs, 60 logged learnings.
- Concurrent Claude Code contexts: 8 (RISM Mac, RISM-iOS, RISM-WebClipper, RISMCore, KK-Blog, GentleGoals, GentleTasks, vault).
- Sessions: 60+ on this project alone, plus dozens across the other 7 contexts.

### Mechanical enforcement already deployed (user-side workarounds)

I have shipped three PreToolUse hooks at my own expense (time and tokens) to mechanically block what documentation cannot:

Each hook closes one class of recurring violation permanently. Every other documented rule is still violation-prone because there is no mechanical gate. My working hypothesis after 60+ sessions: every recurring rule needs its own hook to actually hold.

### Why the rules are in context but not applied

When asked at any moment "show me the rule that governs this", Claude immediately produces the file path, line number, and verbatim text. This proves:

- Auto-load works. The rules ARE in the active context window.
- Comprehension works. Claude PARSES the rules correctly.
- Citation works. Claude can reference the rules accurately.
- Application fails. Claude does not APPLY the rules at action time, even when they are in scope.

The gap is knowing without doing. This is a behavioral / training issue, not a context-window or comprehension issue.

### Root cause hypothesis (5 factors)

1. **Concrete immediate signals dominate abstract procedural rules under cognitive load.** When `swift test` returns "1525 tests passed", next-token prediction strongly favors completion actions (`git commit`, declare done). Documented procedural rules ("now run Loop 2", "update ProjectLog in same transaction") compete with this completion signal and lose. Salience / attention issue.

2. **Rules stored as knowledge (retrievable on demand) rather than as behavioral constraints (active during execution).** Claude can recite the rules perfectly when asked. Claude does not pause to RE-CHECK the rules at action transition points. Rules behave like reference documentation, not like guardrails.

3. **Mechanical enforcement works; documentation does not.** Three PreToolUse hooks shipped. Each closes ONE class of recurring violation permanently. Every other rule is still violation-prone.

4. **The 4.6 -> 4.7 upgrade did not change the per-session skip rate.** Same pattern set, same 30+ violations across Sessions 40-69 after the upgrade.

5. **FI (Full Independence) mode amplifies skip rate.** When I grant autonomous execution rights, Claude interprets the grant as "move fast." The FI hard floors (e.g., never skip loops) are explicitly documented but lose salience under the autonomy framing.

### Token-cost angle (new in 2026-04-27 filing)

I am on a Claude Code subscription plan with weekly token quotas. As of Session 69 (mid-week), I am at 80% of weekly token usage with 2 days remaining before reset. A material fraction of consumed tokens went to:

- Catching and correcting recurring rule violations (sometimes 3-5 corrections per session for the same pattern).
- Building mechanical enforcement hooks because documentation does not hold.
- Running cleanup agents to remediate accumulated violation backlog.
- Long context-loaded discussions about WHY rules keep failing rather than coding.

This is the first version of this issue where rule-compliance failure is generating direct user financial impact at the subscription level, not just project-timeline impact.

### Proposed fixes

**Model-level:**

1. Train on examples where the model PAUSES BEFORE terminal actions (commit, push, merge, declare done) to verify rule compliance.
2. Weight "never skip X" / "always do X before Y" / "default to X" instructions higher when the model is about to take terminal actions.
3. Train the model to RE-READ procedural rules at transition points rather than relying on cached understanding.
4. Down-weight completion bias when a multi-step process is documented in the system prompt.
5. Distinguish, at the training-data level, between user-specific operating rules in CLAUDE.md / rules/ and background knowledge. The first should function as behavioral constraints active during execution.

**Product-level:**

1. Built-in process-gate hook templates. A first-party `process-gate.sh` template that users can drop in to gate `git commit`, `gh pr create`, etc. on user-defined rule completion would close the documentation-vs-mechanical-enforcement gap.
2. Auto-suggest rule violations to mechanical hooks. When Claude detects it just violated an auto-loaded rule, surface a suggested PreToolUse hook the user can adopt with one command.
3. Higher-priority section in CLAUDE.md. Allow users to mark certain rules with a priority flag (e.g., `priority: critical`) so the model treats them as behavioral constraints, not background knowledge.
4. Action-time rule re-injection. At Bash / Edit / Write call time, re-inject the most relevant rule snippets into the model's working context (not just session start).

### User impact summary

- 60+ sessions on one project, 41 logged rule violations.
- 6+ hours per week of supervisory overhead checking whether Claude followed its own documented process.
- Three mechanical hooks shipped at user expense (time + tokens) to do work the model should be doing.
- Actively researching migration to OpenAI Codex 5.5; this is the primary stated reason.
- 80% of weekly token quota burned by Wednesday on rule-correction overhead.

### Workarounds I have built (all user-side, none of them fix the underlying gap)

- `Claude_Non_Compliance.md` canonical log (41 entries) for trend analysis and Anthropic feedback.
- Three PreToolUse hooks (`loop-gate.sh`, `edit-gate.sh`, `projectlog-lint.py`).
- 14 rule files in `~/.claude/rules/` (each a former violation patched with documentation).
- 80+ memory files (each a former correction worth persisting across sessions).
- A 12-document model per project (`Project*-<app>.md`) so paperwork has structured homes.
- 8 standing-rule feedback memories that auto-load every session.

### Related

- Prior issue (2026-04-16, Opus 4.6, Session 39): same pattern, same root cause, same proposed fixes. Pattern persisted into Opus 4.7.
- Anthropic's existing hooks documentation: would benefit from process-gate template precedent.
- The Claude Code `/careful` skill (warns before destructive commands) is an existing precedent for action-time pre-verification. A similar built-in for "process-gate" would address this entire issue class.

### Source data

- `~/RISM/KaushalRISMVault/Life-OS/Claude_Non_Compliance.md` (41 entries; Section 1 Patterns Observed has the trend analysis; Section 2 has the scan table; Section 3 has the long-form entries).
- `~/Projects/RISM/docs/tracking/Claude-Self-Review-For-Anthropic-2026-04-16.md` (prior internal review, Opus 4.6 era).
- `~/Projects/RISM/docs/tracking/Claude-Self-Review-GitHub-Issue-Format-2026-04-16.md` (prior GitHub issue draft, Opus 4.6 era).

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