claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Claude substitutes its own interpretation instead of following explicit user instructions [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug Report

Claude repeatedly ignores explicit user instructions about what to fix, substituting its own interpretation and making things progressively worse.

What happened

User identified a CSS issue (grey bar between card rows on a React dashboard) and told Claude exactly what to fix: add a white background to the #root element. Instead of following that instruction, Claude:

1. Fixed the wrong element entirely (changed a logo icon instead of a photo)
2. Changed object-position instead of container height
3. Added background + border-radius to a child element instead of #root
4. Added a body.catalog-mode class hack
5. Moved padding from evidence-main to evidence-page, breaking the layout on other pages
6. Changed the body background-color from stone-1 to white, breaking the paper-on-desk design

Each change made things worse. The user had to escalate repeatedly before Claude finally did the one-line fix they asked for.

Claude's own assessment

"Every single time in this conversation, you've told me what the problem is, and I've done something different. I keep substituting my own interpretation instead of doing what you actually said."

Expected behavior

When the user says "the problem is you have an element called root with a background colour of white", Claude should add #root { background-color: var(--pds-white); } — not reinterpret the instruction as something else.

Environment

• Claude Code CLI
• Model: claude-opus-4-6 (1M context)