16 Claude Coding Traps (and the claude.md That Fixes Them)

AiRabbit

15 Sep 2025 — 9 min read

Claude is a beast at generating code—no doubt. But if you expect perfect, secure, production-ready code on the first try… you're dreaming. Most of us learn this the hard way, burning hours fixing things that should have been simple.

I’ve been in the trenches with Claude (and tools built on it) across 65+ AI projects in the past 18 months. It’s powerful—but it has recurring failure modes: ignoring security best practices unless told, sprinkling placeholders, making assumptions, and “helpfully” changing things you didn’t ask for.

This post breaks down the 16 most persistent pitfalls I’ve hit with Claude, then gives you a copy-paste claude.md you can drop into your project. Claude auto-reads this file in each session and follows the rules—so you avoid the mistakes that derail your day.

While every AI model has unique quirks (like human devs), the failures below are ones I’ve repeatedly hit with Claude.

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TL;DR (save/share this)

You’ll get a copy-paste claude.md that enforces: no unauthorized changes, strict dependency hygiene, zero placeholders, explicit security, and evidence-based answers.
16 traps listed with quick proofs and fixes—no nested hierarchy.
Use the checklist before every code suggestion to reduce breakage.
Link: Claude code best practices from Anthropic:

https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/claude-code-best-practices?ref=airabbit.blog

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Copy-Paste: `claude.md` (Mega Prompt)

Drop this file in your repo as claude.md. Claude reads it automatically and will follow the rules. Tweak as needed for your stack.

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