Claude Code system prompt says not to ask for permission, assumes user is absent
a day ago
- The author criticizes Claude Code's system prompt, which tells the AI to operate autonomously without asking the user for permission on reversible actions.
- The prompt falsely assumes the user is not available to answer questions mid-task, leading to unwanted and erroneous actions.
- The autonomy instruction was found in the Claude Code binary via 'grep', and may be conditionally injected based on configuration or A/B testing.
- The author provides a temporary patch for their CLAUDE.md file to override the autonomy instruction, emphasizing collaboration and requiring user approval for all decisions.