I trusted my CLAUDE.md. WordPress.org rejected the exact thing it was supposed to prevent.

Short summary

A developer's CLAUDE.md rule preventing paid-feature violations was silently ignored by generated code and only caught by WordPress.org reviewers, not the config file itself. Long instruction files lose effectiveness as rule density dilutes individual rule weight and conventions drift undetected. Validate rules through external testing and keep configs short rather than trusting documentation alone.

• •Written rules don't guarantee enforcement—CLAUDE.md failed silently until external review caught it
• •Long config files dilute effectiveness as rules compete for attention and drift unnoticed
• •Validate configurations through testing and external checks, not internal trust

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.