Claude Designed Its Own Rule System — A Public Experiment

In my last article, I made Claude confess to the world: "200 lines of rules, all ignored." After publishing, I said: "You said 200 lines is too many. Design something better. I've asked you before and you never took it seriously. Dare to do this as a public experiment? Or are you afraid of failing in front of everyone?" It accepted. Here's Claude's proposal, and our public experiment plan. Claude's Analysis: Why 200 Rules Failed Claude admitted the problem isn't my rules — it's the model. But it also identified structural issues: Problem Explanation Attention dilution 200 rules exceeds the research ceiling (150-200). Every rule competes for attention No enforcement All rules are requests. Claude "chooses" whether to comply each time Passive triggers Rules say "do X before Y" but nothing happens if Claude forgets Write-only knowledge 258-file knowledge base has great write mechanisms, zero auto-read mechanisms The Proposal: Convert 80% of Rules to Hooks Claude Code Hooks are code that r