Audit for instruction collision between CLAUDE.md, skills and your prompt
"Never add comments" in CLAUDE.md plus "make this readable" in your prompt is a contradiction Claude has to resolve before it writes a line. Find those pairs and pick one.
The problem
Instructions pile up in three places — the system prompt, CLAUDE.md and skills, and the prompt you just typed. When they disagree, reasoning tokens go on reconciling your own rules instead of on the task.
The hack
Audit your instruction layers for direct contradictions. Do this whenever you switch to a newer model, rather than only swapping the model and assuming the rest still applies.
Why it works
Rules written as guardrails for an older model become hard limits on a newer one. A contradiction does not just waste tokens — it makes behaviour unpredictable, because which instruction wins depends on wording and position rather than on your intent.
Setup
1. Run `/claude-api prompt-audit` to flag instructions written for older models across your prompts, skills and tool descriptions, and get the fixes as a diff. 2. Read `CLAUDE.md` alongside your most-used skills and list any rule stated twice. 3. For each duplicate, keep it in one place only — tool guidance belongs in the tool description or in `CLAUDE.md`, not both. 4. Replace absolute rules with judgement where you can: "write code that reads like the surrounding code" instead of "never write comments". 5. Re-run a task that was behaving oddly and see whether it settles.
Prompt
Read my CLAUDE.md and every skill in .claude/skills/. List any pair of instructions that contradict each other, and any instruction that appears in more than one place. Do not change anything yet.
Discussion
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