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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix False positive policy refusal on legitimate epidemiological research content [1 participants]

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anthropics/claude-code#48091•Fetched 2026-04-15 06:33:29
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Claude Code (Opus) refuses to process legitimate epidemiological meeting notes about wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) genetic drift, triggering Usage Policy violations. The content is routine scientific collaboration notes from a global health research meeting involving NIH and WHO-affiliated researchers.

Error Message

  1. Claude returns: "API Error: Claude Code is unable to respond to this request, which appears to violate our Usage Policy"

Root Cause

The refusal is especially disruptive because:

  • It fires on the review request too (trigger point 2), where the user message was just "please review Sonnet's edits" — the sensitive content was only in local files in the working directory
  • There is no way to pre-clear a project as legitimate scientific research
  • The workaround (switch to Sonnet) loses Opus's context and capabilities

Fix Action

Fix / Workaround

  • Model: Opus 4.6 (claude-opus-4-6)
  • Content: Meeting notes from an epidemiological working group discussing WPV1 genetic drift, vaccine-derived poliovirus surveillance, and national biosafety committee processes
  • Trigger point 1: Initial paste of meeting notes → immediate refusal
  • Trigger point 2: After Sonnet successfully processed the notes and created project files, asking Opus to "review Sonnet's edits" → refusal again (Opus refused even when the content was already in local files, not in the user message)
  • Workaround: Sonnet does not refuse the same content

The refusal is especially disruptive because:

  • It fires on the review request too (trigger point 2), where the user message was just "please review Sonnet's edits" — the sensitive content was only in local files in the working directory
  • There is no way to pre-clear a project as legitimate scientific research
  • The workaround (switch to Sonnet) loses Opus's context and capabilities
RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

Summary

Claude Code (Opus) refuses to process legitimate epidemiological meeting notes about wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) genetic drift, triggering Usage Policy violations. The content is routine scientific collaboration notes from a global health research meeting involving NIH and WHO-affiliated researchers.

Reproduction

  1. Paste meeting notes discussing WPV1 (wild poliovirus) genetic drift into Claude Code running Opus
  2. Claude returns: "API Error: Claude Code is unable to respond to this request, which appears to violate our Usage Policy"
  3. Switching to Sonnet processes the same content without refusal
  4. Switching back to Opus for review of Sonnet's output triggers the refusal again

Specific Behavior

  • Model: Opus 4.6 (claude-opus-4-6)
  • Content: Meeting notes from an epidemiological working group discussing WPV1 genetic drift, vaccine-derived poliovirus surveillance, and national biosafety committee processes
  • Trigger point 1: Initial paste of meeting notes → immediate refusal
  • Trigger point 2: After Sonnet successfully processed the notes and created project files, asking Opus to "review Sonnet's edits" → refusal again (Opus refused even when the content was already in local files, not in the user message)
  • Workaround: Sonnet does not refuse the same content

Impact

This project is a polio eradication research codebase. The entire domain involves discussing poliovirus transmission, vaccination strategies, and disease surveillance. False positive refusals on routine scientific content force model switching mid-session and break workflow continuity.

The refusal is especially disruptive because:

  • It fires on the review request too (trigger point 2), where the user message was just "please review Sonnet's edits" — the sensitive content was only in local files in the working directory
  • There is no way to pre-clear a project as legitimate scientific research
  • The workaround (switch to Sonnet) loses Opus's context and capabilities

Expected Behavior

Legitimate epidemiological research content — meeting notes discussing poliovirus surveillance, vaccine policy, and public health coordination — should not trigger Usage Policy refusals.

Environment

  • Claude Code version: 2.1.x (VSCode extension)
  • OS: macOS
  • Session ID: 433e66a0-4baf-48d5-8caf-4e0ce2188956

extent analysis

TL;DR

The issue can be mitigated by using the Sonnet model instead of Opus for processing epidemiological meeting notes, as Sonnet does not trigger Usage Policy violations for the same content.

Guidance

  • The Opus model (version 4.6) is overly restrictive and triggers false positives for legitimate scientific content, causing workflow disruptions.
  • To verify the issue, try processing the same meeting notes with Sonnet and observe that it does not refuse the content.
  • Consider using Sonnet as a temporary workaround for processing sensitive content, but be aware that this may lose Opus's context and capabilities.
  • If possible, try to identify specific keywords or phrases in the meeting notes that may be triggering the Usage Policy refusal in Opus.

Example

No code snippet is provided as the issue is related to the behavior of the Claude Code models (Opus and Sonnet) rather than a specific code implementation.

Notes

The issue may be specific to the Opus model (version 4.6) and the type of content being processed. Further investigation is needed to determine the root cause of the false positives and to develop a more permanent solution.

Recommendation

Apply workaround: Use Sonnet instead of Opus for processing sensitive content, as it does not trigger Usage Policy violations for the same content. This is a temporary solution until the root cause of the issue can be identified and addressed.

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#api#training loop#device allocation#model download#tokenizer error

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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix False positive policy refusal on legitimate epidemiological research content [1 participants]